DOTmed Industry Sector Report: Operating Room Lighting Systems Sales and Service

by Barbara Kram, Editor | October 07, 2008

"We see a trend toward more demand for video integration in the surgical light itself," Koltnow said. "We can put a video camera right in the center of the handle for teaching, documentation, or even a video consultation anywhere in the world." Skytron also mounts not just lights but monitors and equipment carriers for medical gases, communications, electricity and other utilities and functions to swivel around the patient.

While these considerations don't affect the design of the light, they do affect the room layout. "The OR gets very crowded on the ceiling and floor and each item is like a piece of a puzzle -- the placement and movement of one piece affects all the others," STERIS' Walters said.

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Due to this complexity, OEMs and ISOs often work with several specialized contractors to complete the installation of OR lights. Note that some states have specific regulations to ensure proper safety and operation.

So Who Turns Out the Lights?

You may be wondering who turns on and off the high-tech lighting systems in the hospital operating theater. Usually it's a surgical nurse using a wall switch like any other light. Integrated systems now coming on the market control lighting and other room technologies on a central touch pad. But surgeons often want to have control over the 100,000+ lux illumination of many OR lighting systems.

"Control of that is something that surgeons have asked for. We are building into our next generation of lights an on/ off and intensity control [switch] in a handle that they twist. We will have the option of having the surgeon turn the lights on and off," said Skytron's Koltnow.

Voice control has also been offered by some companies but may be too costly and unreliable. Koltnow has heard surgeons joke about that. "Surgeons like to say they have voice control-when they yell 'turn off the light!' it goes off."