Feasibility and Safety of Argon Cold Plasma Use as an Adjunctive Treatment for Corneal Disease in Dogs, Cats and Small Mammals: A Prospective Clinical Study

Objective Evaluation of the feasibility of argon cold plasma (ACP) use in corneal diseases in clinical practice and assessment of short‐ and long‐term safety in dogs, cats, and small mammals. Animals Studied Client‐owned animals. Procedure ACP was performed in animals with corneal diseases using the kINPenVET (Neoplas GmbH, Germany) under topical anesthesia as an adjunct to standard treatment. Early (< 30 days) and long‐term (> 30 days) adverse reactions and events were monitored. Results 303 eyes in 281 animals were treated with ACP (263 dogs, 8 cats, 10 small mammals) with the following conditions: spontaneous chronic corneal epithelial defects (SCCED, n = 178), infected/infiltrated ulcers ( n = 76), keratomalacia ( n = 22), corneal perforation ( n = 20), other ( n = 7). Treatment under topical anesthesia was well tolerated with only a few animals showing stress during the procedure (3.2%, 8 dogs, 1 cat). The average number of treatments per eye was 3.45 ± 1.74 with a median of 3 (1–9). The two direct adverse reactions observed were punctate opacities (1.3%, n = 4) and blepharospasm (0.7%, n = 2). Short‐term adverse events were: epithelial tears differing from the initial ulceration (4.0%, n = 12), development of stromal infiltrates (2.3%, n = 7), occurring/persistent keratomalacia (2.0%, n = 6). Long‐term follow‐up period averaged 173.1 days with a median of 117 (30–619) days. The most common long‐term adverse events were significant corneal fibrosis and pigmentation (4.0%, n = 12, mostly cases of dry eyes). Conclusions ACP with kINPenVET is a clinically feasible outpatient treatment for various corneal diseases with a low number of short‐ and long‐term adverse reactions and events. It can be easily integrated into clinical treatment protocols.