This report originally appeared in the August 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News

When you think of surgical lights, socks aren't the first things that come to mind. But that's exactly what Chris Walters, senior product manager of surgical lighting for Steris Corporation, uses to explain the difference between halogen and light-emitting diode (LED) lights.

"If you've ever tried to tell the difference between a dark navy blue sock and a black sock under an incandescent light, you know it's nearly impossible because the necessary wavelengths aren't there," says Walters. "When halogen lighting was the gold standard, engineers had to do a lot of filtering and color correction to get a 'white' light, but in doing so, they wound up taking out some of the good light as well."




For example, the wavelengths of infrared light are right next to red in the energy spectrum. When the unwanted infrared light was filtered out, it was inevitable to also lose some of the red, Walters explains.

"Unfortunately, those missing red wavelengths are very important to surgeons, who are typically evaluating subtle differences in sick and healthy red tissue structures and blood," he says. "One of the important differences between LED and halogen sources is the color rendition of deep, saturated red, which is so much sharper and more vivid under LED light. It's the first thing that surgeons notice."

LED lights seem to be taking over the surgical lights industry, although OEMs faced a challenging market last year, as many capital projects were put on hold due to the economy. But things seem to be looking up.

"So far, this year we've seen a bit of a pick-up again, so we're very optimistic about the results for this year," says Walters.

Alan Campbell, product manager for Chromophare for Berchtold, also thinks the market is gaining ground.

"We've seen significant recovery from the prior year, as hospital renovation and construction projects begin to get back on track," he says.

Move over, halogen

Industry experts cite many advantages of LED lights, including high-intensity illumination without the heat, energy-saving costs and a significantly longer lifespan than halogen lights.

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