Tissue processing with atmospheric plasmas

This article surveys current applications of gas discharges in various medical procedures. Various designs of non-equilibrium plasma sources are described, with special attention to cold plasma devices. In tissue processing, two approaches are distinguished: thermal processing, such as heat-induced coagulation, desiccation, cutting and ablation, and non-thermal processing, based on sub-lethal plasma effects on living cells. The latter technique requires special low-power sources, which operate at the body temperature.