title: Evaluation of a new surgical light source for difficult visibility procedures.
abstract: A new lighting device for open surgery of difficult access wounds was designed: the Extender add-on. The performance of the Extender is evaluated and compared with the conventional solutions used in the operating room (OR) on illumination quality. A cylindrical setup was built to measure the distribution of light in a simulated pelvic wound. The light was provided by a head-mounted light, an OR light, and a pair of Extender prototypes. The results showed that the Extender prototypes provided 12.2 lumens inside the wound, whereas the head-mounted light gave 5.7 lumens. The Extenders provided smoothly angular distributed light from 0° to 180°, whereas the head-mounted light and OR light only provided light from 115° to 180°. The Extender prototypes had a promising performance in terms of light distribution. It is expected that a more accurately produced Extender will increase performance in terms of illumination quantity and illumination distribution smoothness even further.
authors.affiliation: Department of BioMechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. wolfram.lamade@rbk.de
authors.forename: Arjan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Knulst
authors.forename: Ana Laura R
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Richard H M
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Goossens
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dankelman
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D013525:Surgical Instruments