Helium plasma could give skin contraction results superior to nitrogen
Helium plasma has been found to give greater skin tissue contraction when compared with nitrogen plasma.
A study published this month in Lasers in Surgery and Medicine compared both types of plasma for skin rejuvenation to measure differences in acute and chronic skin tissue changes.
Using a porcine animal model, the two types of plasma were assessed in terms of acute and chronic skin contraction, maximum acute depth of injury and chronic reparative healing, along with representative histopathology.
20% (8.6 J/cm2) and 40% (17.8 J/cm2) power helium plasma single pass treatment (4 litre gas flow, continuous energy delivery, and linear non‐overlapping passes) was applied to the pigs’ dorsal skin, compared with high energy nitrogen plasma double pass treatment (PSR3 @ 14.1 J/cm2: 4.0 J, 2.5 Hz pulse rate, overlapping horizontal, and vertical passes).
High‐energy nitrogen plasma treatment exhibited greatest mean depth of acute tissue injury 4 hours post‐treatment, whereas helium plasma treatment exhibited greater acute skin tissue contraction.
20% and 40% power helium plasma treatment results were each very similar as a percentage of nitrogen plasma treatment results for both depths of acute tissue injury and acute skin tissue contraction.
Thirty‐day mean skin tissue contraction was greater for helium plasma treatment; however, the data varied significantly between animals in all paradigms.
Histopathologic tissue evaluation after 30 days showed similar findings among the treatment paradigms with epidermal hyperplasia, flattening of rete ridges and with regenerative granulation tissue expanding the superficial and papillary dermis.
