Flooding wounds with carbon dioxide gas during surgery could protect the site from airborne bacteria and also suffocate germs, according to a study.

CO2 is already used for this purpose in the food packaging business. Humidified CO2 would also keep the wound warm and moist, which should reduce tissue damage and speed-up healing.

Study authors Mikael Persson and Jan van der Linden of Karolinska Institute in Sweden, have already tested their idea in the lab and the next step should be a proper clinical trial on humans.

The study explained that wound infection is a serious surgical complication leading to longer stays in hospital and greater risk of death. Problems include bacterial contamination of the wound, drying of body tissues and heat loss.

The study has also been adjudged the winner of the 2008 David Horrobin Prize for medical theory. The prize judge was Sir David Weatherall, emeritus regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, said a Karolinska Institute release.

Sir David commented, "I chose this because the hypothesis revolves around a very unusual approach to an extremely common and important clinical problem and the authors seem to have gone someway to defining the route to which it could be tested by appropriate clinical trial."