title: Choosing surgical lighting in the LED era.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study is to evaluate the illumination characteristics of LED lights objectively to ease the selection of surgical lighting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The illuminance distributions of 5 main and 4 auxiliary lights were measured in 8 clinically relevant scenarios. For each light and scenario, the maximum illuminance E(c) (klux) and the size of the light field d(10) (mm) were computed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed: that large variations for both E(c) (25-160 klux) and d(10) (109-300 mm) existed; that using auxiliary lights reduced both E(c) and d(10) by up to 80% and 30%; that with segmented lights, uneven light distributions occurred; and that with colored LED lights shadow edges on the surgical field became colored.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Objective illuminance measurements show a wide variation between lights and a superiority of main over auxiliary lights. Uneven light distributions and colored shadows indicate that LED lights still need to converge to an optimal design.
authors.affiliation: Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands. a.j.knulst@tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Arjan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Knulst
authors.forename: Laurents P S
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Stassen
authors.forename: Cornelis A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Grimbergen
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dankelman
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D013523:Surgical Equipment