"I see more and more surgeons becoming businessmen instead of just doctors," Larson observed. "Surgeons in hospitals want the 'Cadillac' of technology but as more and more surgeons are opening up their own surgery centers and paying out of their own pockets, they are saying 'maybe I'll go with the Kia instead.'"

Like many health technologies, the lighting market is becoming polarized with choices trending toward either very high-end or very value-oriented choices, industry insiders report. Large teaching institutions wishing to attract and retain the best-known surgeons are more likely to invest in the new LED systems. Community and rural hospitals, surgery centers and private practitioners lean toward effective but more economical options in lighting such as new or used halogen.


LED-More Light Than Heat

The industry's leading manufacturers are Skytron, STERIS (they bought Amsco in 1996), Getinge (MAQUET, ALM), and Berchtold. Note that Berchtold's advanced lighting product is a high intensity discharge (HID) system, also known as xenon. Many other companies also play in this segment such as Stryker, Medical Illumination, and Burton Medical. Most major OEMs have a state-of-the-art LED system coupled with offerings in halogen. Exam lights, headlights, and labor and delivery lights are other related product lines.

"LEDs in general have three advantages- longer life, they use less energy than halogen and operate at lower temperatures, which in our application is very important," said Chris Walters, Senior Product Manager, Surgical and Critical Care Technologies, STERIS Corporation, Mentor, OH. "Right now the LED is just coming online so most manufacturers' portfolios are still halogen- based. Everybody has about the same strategy with the new LED technology representing the premium line and then, as the technology develops, I am sure you will see some of those exam lights and other applications convert to LED."

"[LED lights] use about 70% less energy and do not burn out. There are no bulbs in them," said Harold Koltnow, Senior Product Manager, Surgical Lights, Skytron, Grand Rapids, MI. "We rate our LEDs for a minimum of 20,000 hours, which in an average operating room [would last] 10 years. They prevent one of the real frustrations of losing a [halogen] bulb in one of the surgery lights in the middle of a procedure."

Today's state-of-the-art LED lighting systems solve another inherent problem with conventional lighting- the heat generated by single, double, even triple head fixtures.

"For the surgeon [LED] gives them bright light without the heat that is traditionally generated by halogen lights," Koltnow said. Advantages are not only comfort but elimination of the drying of tissue that heat causes.

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