The surgeon's lighting interface is very important to clinicians. The Harmony LED system, despite its power, has a surprisingly compact LED array, so the light head is easy to move, floating over the patient. Surgeons can adjust the light intensity, spot size, and position with a one-touch control interface.

Fulfilling the other great promise of LED, the Harmony LED consumes one-third less energy than traditional surgical lighting and lasts 30 times longer--rated for 30,000 hours of life, which would last 10 to 15 years under normal use. It emits 34% less beam heat than halogen, an important comfort factor for surgeons and a clinical imperative to prevent drying of exposed tissue.


The high intensity, pure white light is integrated with a high-definition suspension to display sharp video images. Rounding out the STERIS offering is their sophisticated mounting and a well protected wiring design including an easy-glide suspension, fiber optics and coaxial wiring. The Harmony LED system accommodates all currently used video signals.

Available in two sizes and several configurations with multiple LEDs and monitors, the system is designed for future growth to add lights, monitors, camera, etc.

"We are seeing a convergence of the lighting technology, the equipment management and the integration. Displaying information for surgeons on the monitors and getting all that to work together is very important," Walters stressed.

Note that STERIS has designed its LED lights to be backward compatible to its halogen suspension system. "Rather than coming in and completely renovating a room to go from halogen technology to LED technology, we can come in ... take off the old halogen light head, put on the LED light head, do a software upgrade from the control center and you are done. You don't have to open the ceiling, run new wiring, and redo your integration if you have integrated monitors," Walters noted.

The leading manufacturers all recommend that institutions try before they buy. The companies will arrange for a trial of the lights before you make a purchasing decision. This might be done at a remote site or possibly using mobile systems.

The cost is about $26,000 to $28,000 for a dual-light system, but the price goes up with the addition of monitors, cameras and other options. For pricing details and technical information, contact STERIS Corporation, 5960 Heisley Road, Mentor, Ohio 44060, 440-354-2600, www.steris.com.

Skytron's Aurora LED

Skytron's Aurora LED Surgical Lights promise to revolutionize the advancement of bright, high intensity and cool illumination along with surgeon-controlled focus and color temperature selection.

More Industry Headlines