The use of low-temperature argon plasma in children’s practice: A review

Background. Currently, the issue of treating wounds and their purulent-inflammatory complications in pediatric surgery remains highly relevant. The modern approach to treating wounds and wound infections is based on the method of active surgical treatment and includes performing surgical treatment, conducting local treatment with modern wound dressings, and treating with various methods of additional physical impact. Special attention is paid to plasma technology, which remains poorly studied and has no clear indications for use in pediatric practice, particularly in the treatment of extensive soft tissue damage of various etiologies, including open limb injuries.

Materials and methods. In this work, the analysis of domestic and foreign literature on the use of plasma technologies in various fields of medicine based on domestic and foreign data: eLIBRARY, PubMed, Google Scholar and UpToDate over the past 10 years. To search for relevant literature, the following keywords were used: low-temperature argon plasma; extensive wounds in children; plasma technology in medicine. During the initial selection, 962 sources of literature were found, 41 were included in the review.

Results. Literature analysis has shown the effectiveness of plasma technologies in various fields of medicine. The features of this method of exposure in various modes to tissues are described, as well as the technical aspects of its use in surgery are indicated.

Conclusion. Complicated by surgical infection, the course of the wound process leads to an increase in the volume of tissue damage, which hinders reconstructive and plastic surgeries. The use of low-temperature argon plasma in combination with traditional methods of surgical treatment allows for the rapid preparation of the wound surface for the final stages of surgical treatment. This is achieved by reducing bacterial contamination of infected wounds and stimulating reparative processes.