TWI909389B - Low-temperature plasma dressing - Google Patents

Abstract

A low-temperature plasma dressing is suitable for application to the skin surface. The low-temperature plasma dressing includes an insulating layer, an electrode module disposed on the underside of the insulating layer, and a dielectric module and a conductive adhesive layer disposed on the underside of the electrode module. The electrode module includes a first electrode and a second electrode. The dielectric module is disposed on the underside of the first electrode, and its contact surface has multiple slots for generating low-temperature plasma at the first electrode. The conductive adhesive layer is electrically connected to the underside of the second electrode. Through the structural design of this low-temperature plasma dressing, it can be directly applied to the skin surface and can be driven to generate low-temperature plasma to treat wounds. This can improve the shortcomings of existing low-temperature plasma treatment devices, which require manual operation and cannot treat large wounds at the same time.

Description

Low-temperature plasma dressing

This invention relates to a surgical dressing, and more particularly to a low-temperature plasma dressing.

Severe or large wounds typically require a long time to heal. Research has shown that cryo-plasma is quite effective in promoting wound healing. By applying cryo-plasma to the wound using a cryo-plasma device, the bio-film that hinders wound healing can be removed, thereby accelerating the healing process.

The aforementioned cryogenic plasma device generally includes a plasma drive device and a plasma head electrically connected to the plasma drive device. Currently, medical personnel hold the plasma head and move it relative to the patient's wound, allowing the cryogenic plasma generated by the plasma head to gradually treat different parts of the wound. However, this method of using a handheld plasma head relative to the patient's wound is not only labor-intensive due to the need for operation by medical personnel, but also inconvenient because the treatment area of the plasma generated by the plasma head is small and it requires constant movement relative to the wound.

Therefore, the purpose of this invention is to provide a low-temperature plasma dressing that improves upon at least one of the shortcomings of prior art.

Therefore, the low-temperature plasma dressing of the present invention is suitable for application on the skin surface and can be driven by a plasma driving device to generate low-temperature plasma. The low-temperature plasma dressing includes an insulating layer, an electrode module disposed on the bottom side of the insulating layer, and a dielectric module and a conductive adhesive layer disposed on the bottom side of the electrode module.

The electrode module includes a first electrode and a second electrode spaced apart on the bottom side of the insulation layer for electrically connecting the plasma driving device. The dielectric module is disposed on the bottom side of the first electrode and has a skin-facing contact bottom surface. The contact bottom surface has multiple slot spaces for the first electrode to generate the low-temperature plasma. The conductive adhesive layer is electrically connected to the bottom side of the second electrode and extends to the bottom side of the insulation layer for contact with the skin.

Therefore, the low-temperature plasma dressing of the present invention is suitable for application on the skin surface and can be driven by a plasma driving device to generate low-temperature plasma. The low-temperature plasma dressing includes an insulating layer, an electrode module disposed on the bottom side of the insulating layer, and a conductive adhesive layer disposed on the bottom side of the electrode module.

The electrode module includes a first electrode and a second electrode spaced apart on the bottom side of the insulation layer for electrical connection to the plasma driving device. The first electrode includes a longitudinally and laterally extending first electrode portion, which defines a plurality of pores around itself for generating low-temperature plasma. The first electrode portion has a metal core and a dielectric material covering the metal core. The conductive adhesive layer is electrically connected to the bottom side of the second electrode and extends to the bottom side of the insulation layer for contact with the skin.

The advantage of this invention is that, through the structural design of the low-temperature plasma dressing, it can be directly applied to the skin surface and the low-temperature plasma generated by the device can be used to treat wounds. This improves upon the shortcomings of existing low-temperature plasma treatment devices, which require manual operation and cannot treat large wounds simultaneously.

Before this invention is described in detail, it should be noted that similar elements are represented by the same designation in the following description. In addition, the dimensions of the layered structures in the various figures of this invention are for illustrative purposes only, and implementation is not limited to the scale of the figures.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, a first embodiment of the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 of the present invention is suitable for application to the skin surface and can be electrically connected to a plasma driving device (not shown), which can drive the low-temperature plasma for skin treatment.

The low-temperature plasma dressing 200 includes a flexible insulating layer 3, an electrode module 4 disposed on the insulating layer 3, and a dielectric module 5 and a conductive adhesive layer 6 disposed on the bottom side of the electrode module 4.

The insulation layer 3 is made of an electrical insulating material, such as, but not limited to, plastic film and fiber cloth.

The electrode module 4 includes a first electrode 41 and a second electrode 42 spaced apart on the insulation layer 3. The first electrode 41 and the second electrode 42 can bend and deform with the insulation layer 3. The first electrode 41 has a sheet-like first electrode portion 411 disposed on the bottom side of the insulation layer 3, and a first contact portion 412 exposed on the top side of the insulation layer 3 and electrically connected to the first electrode portion 411. The second electrode 42 has a ring-shaped second electrode portion 421 disposed on the bottom side of the insulation layer 3 and spaced around the first electrode portion 411, and a second contact portion 422 exposed on the top side of the insulation layer 3 and electrically connected to the second electrode portion 421.

In this first embodiment, both the first contact portion 412 and the second contact portion 422 are electrode clips, which can be used for electrical connection of the plasma drive device. However, in practice, the shape of the first contact portion 412 and the second contact portion 422 is not limited to this. In this first embodiment, both the first electrode portion 411 and the second electrode portion 421 are made of high-conductivity metals, such as, but not limited to, copper, silver, gold, etc.

The dielectric module 5 includes a dielectric layer 51 disposed on the bottom side of the insulating layer 3 and the first electrode portion 411, and covering the dielectric material of the first electrode portion 411. The dielectric layer 51 separates the first electrode portion 411 from the second electrode portion 421. The dielectric layer 51 has a skin-facing contact bottom surface 511, which has a plurality of recessed slot spaces 512 for the first electrode 41 to generate the low-temperature plasma.

In practice, the slot spaces 512 can be arranged in an array. The cross-sectional shape of each slot space 512 is, for example, but not limited to, a circle, or a polygon such as a quadrilateral or an octagon, and the concave shape can be, for example, but not limited to, a cone or a truncated cone. Furthermore, the opening ratio of the slot spaces 512 relative to the contact bottom surface 511 is between 60% and 90%, that is, the proportion of the total open area of the slot spaces 512 to the area of the contact bottom surface 511 is between 60% and 90%.

In this first embodiment, the dielectric layer 51 is made of materials such as, but not limited to, silicone and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

In this first embodiment, the thickness range of the first electrode portion 411 and the second electrode portion 421, as well as the thickness range of the dielectric layer 51, are all between 0.05 and 2.00 mm.

The conductive adhesive layer 6 covers the bottom surface of the second electrode portion 421 and extends to the bottom area of the insulating layer 3 not covered by the dielectric module 5 and the first electrode 41. The conductive adhesive layer 6 is, for example, but not limited to, a hydrogel containing a conductive dielectric. Since there are many commercially available medical conductive adhesives, and they are not the focus of this invention, they will not be described in detail, nor are they limited to the above-described forms.

When using the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 of this first embodiment, the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 is applied to the skin surface, so that the conductive adhesive layer 6 is generally attached to the normal skin area outside the wound area, and the dielectric layer 51 covers the wound. Then, the plasma driving device applies a piezoelectric current of a predetermined frequency to the first electrode 41 and the second electrode 42, causing the first electrode portion 411 to generate the low-temperature plasma in the slot spaces 512 of the dielectric layer 51, thereby allowing the low-temperature plasma to be used to treat the wound area covered by the dielectric layer 51.

Referring to Figure 3, the difference between a second embodiment of the low-temperature plasma coating 200 and the first embodiment lies in the structure of the dielectric module 5. For ease of explanation, the following description will only focus on the differences between the embodiments.

In this second embodiment, the dielectric module 5 includes a dielectric layer 51 disposed on the bottom side of the first electrode portion 411 and the insulating layer 3, covering the first electrode portion 411, and a porous fabric layer 52 stacked on the bottom side of the dielectric layer 51. The fabric layer 52 has a contact bottom surface 521 for facing the skin, and the contact bottom surface 521 forms a plurality of slot spaces 522.

When the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 of this second embodiment is used, the gauze layer 52 is used to cover the wound. When the plasma driving device applies a predetermined frequency voltage to the first electrode 41 and the second electrode 42, it drives the first electrode 41 to generate the low-temperature plasma in the slot spaces 522 of the gauze layer 52, and the wound can be treated with the low-temperature plasma.

Referring to Figures 4 and 5, a third embodiment of the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 of the present invention differs from the first embodiment in that it has an overall layered structure design.

In this third embodiment, the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 includes the insulating layer 3, an electrode module 4 disposed on the bottom side of the insulating layer 3, and the conductive adhesive layer 6 disposed on the electrode module 4. The electrode module 4 includes a porous mesh-like first electrode 41 and a second electrode 42 disposed at intervals in the insulating layer 3.

The first electrode 41 includes an elongated first electrode portion 411 extending longitudinally and laterally along the bottom side of the insulation layer 3, and a first contact portion 412 exposed on the top side of the insulation layer 3 and electrically connected to the first electrode portion 411. The first electrode portion 411 is self-wound to form a porous mesh structure 413, and defines a plurality of pores 414 around it for generating the low-temperature plasma. The first electrode portion 411 has a metal core 415 and a dielectric material covering the metal core 415. The metal core 415 is made of the same material as the first electrode portion 411 in the two aforementioned embodiments. The encapsulation 416 is made of the same material as the dielectric layer 51 in the two aforementioned embodiments.

The second electrode 42 includes a second electrode portion 421 that is spaced around the mesh structure 413 formed by the first electrode portion 411, and a second contact portion 422 that is exposed on the top side of the insulation layer 3 and electrically connected to the second electrode portion 421. The conductive adhesive layer 6 is electrically connected to the bottom side of the second electrode portion 421 and extends to connect to the bottom side of the insulation layer 3.

When the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 of this third embodiment is used, the mesh structure 413 formed by the first electrode portion 411 is used to cover the wound. Then, the plasma driving device applies a predetermined frequency voltage to the first electrode 41 and the second electrode 42 to drive the first electrode portion 411 to generate the low-temperature plasma in the pores 414 defined around it.

In practice, a piece of gauze can be laid on the wound first, and then the first electrode portion 411 of the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 can be superimposed on the gauze. The low-temperature plasma dressing 200 can also be driven to generate the low-temperature plasma in the gap between the first electrode portion 411 and the gauze, thereby treating the wound.

It must be specifically noted that in the above embodiments, the second electrode portion 421 is designed to be ring-shaped, but in practice, it is not limited to this.

In summary, the structural design of the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 allows for direct application to the skin surface, where a plasma-driven device generates the low-temperature plasma for wound treatment. Furthermore, the device allows for the simultaneous driving of multiple dressings 200 to treat multiple wounds at the same time, overcoming the limitations of existing low-temperature plasma treatment devices that require manual handling and cannot simultaneously treat large wounds. Therefore, the low-temperature plasma dressing 200 of this invention is indeed a highly innovative creation and effectively achieves its intended purpose.

However, the above description is merely an example of the present invention and should not be used to limit the scope of the present invention. Any simple equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the scope of the patent application and the contents of the patent specification shall still fall within the scope of the present invention.

200: Low-temperature plasma coating; 3: Insulation layer; 4: Electrode module; 41: First electrode; 411: First electrode portion; 412: First contact portion; 413: Mesh structure; 414: Pores; 415: Metal core; 416: Encapsulation; 42: Second electrode; 421: Second electrode portion; 422: Second contact portion; 5: Dielectric module; 51: Dielectric layer; 511: Contact bottom surface; 512: Gutter space; 52: Fabric layer; 521: Contact bottom surface; 522: Gutter space; 6: Conductive adhesive layer.

Other features and effects of the present invention will be clearly shown in the embodiments with reference to the drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the structure of a first embodiment of the low-temperature plasma dressing of the present invention; Figure 2 is a side sectional view illustrating the structure of the first embodiment; Figure 3 is a side sectional view illustrating the structure of a second embodiment of the low-temperature plasma dressing of the present invention; Figure 4 is a top view illustrating the structure of a third embodiment of the low-temperature plasma dressing of the present invention; and Figure 5 is a side sectional view illustrating the structure of the third embodiment.

200: Low-temperature plasma coating 3: Insulation layer 4: Electrode module 41: First electrode 411: First electrode portion 412: First contact portion 42: Second electrode 421: Second electrode portion 422: Second contact portion 5: Dielectric module 51: Dielectric layer 511: Contact bottom surface 512: Gap space 6: Conductive adhesive layer

Claims (11)

A low-temperature plasma dressing, suitable for application to the skin surface and driven by a plasma driving device to generate low-temperature plasma, the low-temperature plasma dressing comprising: an insulating layer; an electrode module including a first electrode and a second electrode spaced apart on the underside of the insulating layer and used for electrically connecting the plasma driving device; and a... A dielectric module is disposed on the bottom side of the first electrode and has a skin-facing contact bottom surface. The contact bottom surface has multiple slot spaces for the first electrode to generate the low-temperature plasma; and a conductive adhesive layer is electrically connected to the bottom side of the second electrode and extends to the bottom side of the insulating layer for contacting the skin. The low-temperature plasma dressing as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dielectric module includes a dielectric layer disposed on the bottom side of the first electrode and defining the contact bottom surface. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 2, wherein the porosity of the slot spaces of the dielectric layer relative to the contact bottom surface ranges from 60% to 90%. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 2, wherein the thickness of the dielectric layer ranges from 0.05 to 2.00 mm. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 2, wherein the dielectric layer separates the first electrode from the second electrode. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 1, wherein the dielectric module includes a dielectric layer disposed on the bottom side of the first electrode and a porous fabric layer stacked on the bottom side of the dielectric layer and defining the contact bottom surface. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 1, wherein the first electrode has a first electrode portion disposed on the bottom side of the insulation layer and a first contact portion exposed on the top side of the insulation layer, the second electrode has a second electrode portion disposed on the bottom side of the insulation layer and spaced apart from the first electrode portion, and a second contact portion exposed on the top side of the insulation layer, the dielectric module is disposed on the bottom side of the first electrode portion, and the conductive adhesive layer is disposed on the bottom side of the second electrode portion and extends to connect to the bottom side of the insulation layer. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 7, wherein the thickness of both the first electrode portion and the second electrode portion is in the range of 0.05 to 2.00 mm. A low-temperature plasma dressing is suitable for application to the skin surface and can be driven by a plasma driving device to generate low-temperature plasma. The low-temperature plasma dressing comprises: an insulating layer; and an electrode module including a first electrode and a second electrode spaced apart on the underside of the insulating layer and used for electrically connecting the plasma driving device. The first electrode includes a crisscrossing strip. The first electrode portion extends outward, having a metal core and a dielectric material covering the metal core. The first electrode portion defines a plurality of pores around which it can generate the low-temperature plasma. It also has a conductive adhesive layer electrically connected to the bottom side of the second electrode and extending to the bottom side of the insulating layer for contact with the skin. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 9, wherein the first electrode further has a first contact portion exposed on the top side of the insulation layer, and the second electrode has a second contact portion exposed on the top side of the insulation layer. The low-temperature plasma dressing as described in claim 10, wherein the second electrode further has an annular second electrode portion disposed on the bottom side of the insulation layer and spaced around the first electrode portion, and the conductive adhesive layer is disposed on the bottom side of the second electrode portion and extends to connect to the bottom side of the insulation layer.