The Effect of Cold Helium Plasma on Microcirculation in the Periwound Zone after Experimental Thermal Injury

—The effect of cold helium plasma on the state of microcirculation in the periwound zone after experimental thermal injury was evaluated. The experiments were performed on male Wistar rats. A contact thermal burn on an area of 20% of the body surface was simulated in rats under combined anesthesia. Starting from day 2 after the injury, the burn surface in rats of the experimental group was evenly treated with a stream of cold helium plasma for 1 minute (three daily procedures, distance to the skin surface 15 mm). Cold plasma was generated using a device designed at the Institute of Applied Physics Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Nizhny Novgorod). The effect of plasma treatment on the state of microcirculation in the periwound zone on day 4 after infliction of a contact thermal burn was studied using laser Doppler flowmetry on a LAKK-M apparatus. It was found that during simulation of thermal injury the index of microcirculation in the periwound zone was statistically significantly decreased relative to healthy animals (by a factor of 1.97). Treatment of the wound surface with plasma promoted the stimulation of blood flow in the microvessels in the area (by 72.9% relative to the control group on day 4 after the burn). Thus, the treatment of the wound surface with cold helium plasma in the early post-burn period (days 2–4 after injury) had a positive effect on the state of microcirculation in the periwound zone, contributing to the intensification of blood flow due to NO-dependent and neurogenic mechanisms and partial relief of signs of the “stealing phenomenon” in it.