ArticleDermatology and therapy2025
Efficacy and Safety of Cold Atmospheric Plasma-Assisted Therapy for Herpes Zoster: A Randomized, Parallel, Positive-Controlled, Non-inferiority Multicenter Clinical Trial.
Article in Dermatology and therapy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Review
- Cold atmospheric plasma is a promising strategy for treating diabetic retinopathy.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Review
- Free Radicals in Health and Disease.MedComm · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
21 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionThere is growing evidence that cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) can boost skin wound healing and inhibit various viruses. Here, we evaluated the effectiveness and safety of CAP as an adjunct treatment for herpes zoster (HZ). We hypothesized that CAP was similar to or better than the helium-neon (He-Ne) laser in promoting HZ wound and pain recovery.
methodsWe recruited 187 patients with acute HZ who received either CAP once per day for at least 2 min per treatment area or He-Ne laser therapy once per day for 20 min per session, in addition to a standard treatment regime. The primary endpoint was the efficacy rate, defined as the percentage of patients in each group whose treated area exhibited drying of blisters in ≥ 50% of the area after the final treatment. Secondary evaluation indicators included treatment duration (in days), onset time of scabbing, scab rate, visual analog scale pain scores, and quality of life scores.
resultsEfficacy rates after the last treatment were not significantly different between the CAP and He-Ne laser groups (at 3 ± 1 and 10 ± 2 days after the last treatment, respectively, p > 0.05). Treatment duration, scab formation onset time, and complete scab formation time were shorter in the CAP group than in the He-Ne laser group. No severe adverse events or reactions occurred in the CAP group.
conclusionCAP is an effective and safe therapeutic option for HZ.
trial registrationThis study has been registered at www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2300069993). A graphical abstract is available for this article.
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