The traditional way of lighting an operating room was with the halogen lights. However, over the years, the expectations of surgical teams have drastically changed as the LED lighting technology has advanced. With the number of hospitals opting for LED lights for the surgery rooms, many are now forced to make the choice: opting for the new or sticking with the old halogen lights. It's crucial to know the differences between these two technologies in order to make right decision. Nanchang Micare Medical Equipment Co., Ltd is high-tech, innovative enterprise, which has developed and manufactured all kinds of medical lighting, including operating shadowless light, medical light for examination, LED ceiling light and other medical lights in Nanchang, which is located in the National High-Tech Development Zone in Nanchang. Detailed comparison discusses four aspects of LED and halogen surgical lights.
Illumination Quality & Shadow Control
The primary role of any surgical light is to provide bright, even and shadow free illumination. Halogen lights are a combination of one very intense bulb – and many have been discovered to be poorly suited to produce balanced light. The older the bulb, the lower the output making for hot spots and distracting shadows. When the light is new, halogen lights are difficult to control shadows on deep cavities since the light source is easily blocked by surgeons' hands and instruments. But for LED surgical lights, they are comprised of several individual LED chips, precisely designed into particular array. This multi-source design will yield very uniform lighting with Lux levels from typically 80,000 to 160,000, much higher than most of the systems using halogens. However, the most important aspect is that LED lighting has greater shadow dilution. Other sections of the array will compensate for an obstructed section, to maintain bright surgical field. Advanced LED optics power Micare's operating 'Shadowless Lights' while operating with over 90% shadow control even in challenging deep tissue operations. LED is by far the most accurate for surgeries.
Color Rendering & Tissue Differentiation
Color accuracy is the key to being able to see bleeder or subtle tissue abnormality. The Colour Rendering Index (CRI) is expected to be about 85-90 new, but will have significant drop with bulb ageing. They also emit warm orange color (approximately 3200K-3800K) which can actually alter the appearance of normal tissues, fat and blood. The CRI of LED surgical lights can be consistently 90-95+ for the life of the light and some high end products have CRI 97. The colour temperature of LED lights is between 4000K and 5000K—this is the daylight colour temperature. This light is cool and neutral, and will boost contrast and eye strain in extended procedures. The surgeon will be able to easily distinguish between the arteries, veins, nerves and different layers of tissues. Medical cold light sources and surgical lights from Micare are optimized to provide faithful colour rendition. Halogen is definitely out classed when it comes to accurate diagnosis and safer procedures in these LED headlights.
Heat Emission & Operating Room Comfort
There are many common and well-known issues with halogen technology: heat. 80–90% of the energy emitted by halogen bulb is in the form of heat (infra-red radiation). This intense, radiant heat causes the operating field to heat up, dries exposed tissues and makes the surgical team sweat and get tired quickly. It also makes the OR's air conditioning system run harder, thus incurring additional costs for energy consumption. This isn't true with LED technology. As the majority of the energy is used for visible light, little infrared radiation is emitted by LEDs. The cool-touch light beam of the LED surgical light will not overheat during operation for hours. This results in patient comfort due to reduction of drying effects and surgical staff comfort due to reducing drying effects, heat stress and sweat. Better concentration and reduced fatigating errors due to cooler and more comfortable OR. Lengthy, complex procedures also benefit patient safety and staff well-being with the heat benefit of LED.
The Life Span, Maintenance And Total Cost Of Ownership
The most obvious difference between the two is the LED bulbs will last considerably longer than the halogens. The life of standard halogen surgical bulb is from 500 to 2000 hours or 6-18 months in busy OR. Technician time, OR downtime and the bulb price will be required for each bulb replacement. A hospital may replace the halogen bulbs 10-20 times for each light in the 10 years. LED modules, on the other hand, have lifespan of 30,000 to 50,000 hours, which is the equivalent of 10 to 15 years of the normal life. During this time period the output and colour temperature remain steady and don't change in any way. LED lights consumes 50-70% less power than the halogen and it is not as electrical intensive as the halogen. With all of these extra up-front costs, LED is yet much more cost-effective when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) (up-front cost, energy, maintenance, bulb replacement and OR downtime). A lot of LED systems additionally have battery backup to help you power outages and sealed housing that are simpler to clean. Where replacement surgery tables, medical lighting and bulbs for older systems are concerned, reliability is all that matters.
Conclusion
In comparing LED surgery lights to halogen ones, the data overwhelmingly favors LED. LED lights have better illumination quality, accurate color rendering, less heat, dramatically longer life, and much lower overall cost. Halogen technology is archaic and expensive and will become much more challenging to service as bulbs become hard to find. Hospitals that want to enhance surgical outcome, personnel comfort, and hospital economy can no longer be resistant to transitioning toLED; in fact it has become the standard of care. Nanchang Micare Medical Equipment Co., Ltd is cutting-edge company dedicated to lighting (both surgical lights, endoscopes, household therapeutic devices, and airport lights as well as medical loupes) and other medical accessories, providing quality and affordable LED surgery lights that cater to current hospital needs. Transition to LED-your surgical team and your patients will be forever grateful.