“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. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)