Disinfecting wound treatment for avoiding infection of the patient due to entry of microorganisms into the surgical wound is of the highest priority in an operating room. Open wounds, which occur, for example, in case of severe bone fractures, represent a great challenge in terms of hygiene, especially against the background of the increase in multi resistant bacteria, which have been a major problem in medical facilities for a long time.
A great variety of measures, e.g., the disinfection of medical devices with the use of disinfectants, sterilization of medical instruments with sterilizing devices intended specifically for this purpose, or even administration of antibiotics at comparatively high doses, have been used to avoid an infection of a patient. Since stressful, lengthy and cost-intensive after treatment are necessary in case of an infection, there is an urgent need for simple and cost-effective measures for disinfecting wound treatment.
Attempts have been made in the recent past to also utilize the sterilizing effect of plasma for medical purposes. One example of this can be found in DE 10 2009 028 190 A1. A hand-held plasma device, which operates with a so-called cold, HF-excited plasma under atmospheric pressure conditions, is disclosed there. The plasma is generated by a plasma generator arranged in the housing of the device and is transported from the housing of the device in a gas stream in the form of a free jet. The orientation and expansion of the free jet leaving the housing of the device are set in this device by the special design of the discharge nozzle used therefor. A simple guiding of the free jet, for example, by varying the expansion of the jet and/or the direction in which the jet is discharged, is not possible with this device.