# Budget Surgical/Dental Headlamp for rural hospital in Bangladesh



## fosho (Apr 26, 2012)

I am working with a surgeon in a rural hospital in Bangladesh and we are looking to purchase a handful of budget surgical/dental Headlamps for a new hospital facility we are building.

He currently uses a donated Enova Duo which is a US made surgical headlamp that outputs 200,000 LUX (at the standard 16in operating distance, with perhaps a roughly 6 in diameter circular surface area) but costs in the vicinity of $2000, way out of our budget for purchasing more headlamps. The best alternative I have been able to find is a chinese headlamp from Jintang Jinyang Medical Instruments that outputs 48,000 LUX and costs $250-300. http://www.dhgate.com/led-headlight...light/r-ff8080812d36cf93012d565102956de9.html Unfortunately, this is still out of our price range (it may not be feasible, but ideally we would like something in the $50 range), and may not be as bright as we would like (though we don't know for certain yet).

Does anyone have any suggestions for purchasing a headlamp, or perhaps even hacking together something that would be adequate for us? We do have a workshop here, so doing some mods may be an option, and may be preferable to spending more money on the headlamp, because a $250-300 item will have a tendency to walk off the campus in a poor area like this, and we may have to replace some from time to time.

In terms of doing a hack mod, I have looked at something like this CREE XML flashlight that outputs http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006G68XYM/?tag=cpf0b6-20. It outputs 1200 lumens, and if focused on a 6in diameter area would equate to 65,000 LUX, and is only about $30. However I have no idea what the dispersion angle on such a flashlight would be, and I know that dental/surgical headlamps tend to have very narrow dispersion angles (I have heard about 5 deg).

Thank you for your help.


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## JoVo (Apr 26, 2012)

I recommend the Zebralight H51c or H51Fc.
In my opinion you should look out for a High CRI-LED which gives better color rendition.


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## asval (Apr 26, 2012)

I second the zebra light recommendation

They might not be throwers, but they're good if you need consistent lighting for precision work


you can see different beam patterns here if it helps

http://fonarik.com/test/indexen.php?model=241&scene=3&mode=1


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## YoSeKi (Apr 26, 2012)

Zebra H51 has 80 degree wide spill beam. If you need a tight beam, the Zebra probably isn't the best choice. 

Also, doing very close up work with a Zebra, especially when looking into tight cavities, can be awkward as the light source of the Zebra being off center does come into play at very close distances.

I'm not saying that the H51 won't work at all. Just pointing out some issues you might want to consider before dropping $64 on a headlamp.


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## eh4 (May 3, 2012)

The surgical light you mentioned seems awfully bright, is that much light needed or is it part of the "more is better, hi tech" culture? I ask because it sounds like that much light would make the surgeon's pupils fully constrict, maybe that is a necessity in a white, brightly lit operating room. I don't understand the conditions that the light would be used in. I find the 120 lumens maximum of the ZL H51Fc fine for the extremely trivial ingrown toenail excisions on my big toe, but that means very little. The surgical video that I've seen, the lights seem counter productively bright.


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## eh4 (May 3, 2012)

We need a surgeon flashaholic on this thread, stat.


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## ToyTank (May 3, 2012)

I'm not sure I don't have any experience with high lux headlamps. I'm surprised he wants it that high but he's the expert right? I always think of high lux for long throw across a field. 

I find wide angle and accurate color rendering with 100 lumen or so is about right for working on tasks around me on a picnic table at night or something. 

Zebralights are going to be the best headlamps in your price range by a wide margin, but again if that lux is critical these won't come close.

I think the H501w though is better for close up work. Smoother light with no hotspot at all. The H502 should be out any day now and is brighter.

Rendering colors accurately may be of use. The H51C is the HCRI version.

The H600 is also a fine choice. The H600 is brighter and has longer runtimes(cost $30 more). You can get chargers from cottonpickers and batteries from AW in the marketplace.

If you use AA powered lights get Sanyo eneloops. If you go 18650 li-ion you'll get brighter lights and more runtime.

You can also find "flood to throw" or "flood to zoom" headlamps. I'm not sure of the quality of these, but they really focus the light.


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## YoSeKi (May 3, 2012)

I'm not a surgeon or a dentist either. But I've checked enough sore throats to know that floodlights don't work that great for checking inside mouths. You need a tight beam and high lux to get light to tight areas. Floodlights light up a bigger area than you need and create a lot of shadows when you're looking at folds of tissue. Beams with wide spill aren't great either because it increases the odds of you dazzling the patient.


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## eh4 (May 3, 2012)

YoSeKi said:


> I'm not a surgeon or a dentist either. But I've checked enough sore throats to know that floodlights don't work that great for checking inside mouths. You need a tight beam and high lux to get light to tight areas. Floodlights light up a bigger area than you need and create a lot of shadows when you're looking at folds of tissue. Beams with wide spill aren't great either because it increases the odds of you dazzling the patient.



That is helpful, makes sense.


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## ToyTank (May 4, 2012)

I just want to make sure there is not an extra zero. 20K lux is very good for a hand held lamp. 200K lux AFAIK you almost need to be HID.


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## Alexis (May 7, 2012)

As a surgeon who has built his own flashlights from the luxeon I days, the brighter the better for deep cavity surgery. For surface things, you won't need as much brightness.

This is the best headlamp currently

http://www.litsurgical.com/

An XML bikelamp with headband is a reasonable alternative, but there are reliability issues when running it at full strength, all day because those aren't well cooled, since they are designed for use on moving bikes.

Something like an XPG with an ahorton would be perfect, although I haven't seen anyone make anything like that. Has anyone else?


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## pallidum (May 13, 2012)

I'm glad to find this thread. I actually joined to try to get some recommendations on this very subject.
I am an Ent surgeon, and spend the majority of my time operating in small spaces (mouth, nose, small neck incision). Most name brand surgical headlamps are in the $800-1500 range. They also usually suffer in the comfort category with awkward plastic headbands. Because I like the DIY approach, I decided to try my hand building my own. I just put in an order for the following parts from one of the major US LED supply websites- they have been really helpful answering my questions.
Cree MC-E neutral white
Cree L2 spot optic (6 degree divergence)
700 mA buckpuck driver with external potentiometer for dimming
Generic 2600 mAh battery/charger off the bay
Project box

I chose the MC-E because it generates near 300 lm off of just 350 mA. While the XM-L gets much brighter with higher current, it takes 700 mA to reach the same brightness (important for battery life when operating all day). I hope the neutral white has the best color profile. Also, I still haven't worked out the headband part, but am thinking of a cool max type athletic headband for comfort with an aluminum bracket and mounting hardware. It will be interesting to try to get it to at least be able to articulate up and down a bit. 

In any case, I agree with the above authors that brighter is better for this application, but maybe more importantly is the tight spot beam. Under loupe magnification, my field of view is limited anyways, so a wide beam is a waste. If the original author has basic soldering and construction capabilities, then the DIY approach could yield a really excellent custom headlamp for the $.

If anyone has recommendations- I'm all ears. Thanks!


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## YoSeKi (May 14, 2012)

pallidum said:


> I chose the MC-E because it generates near 300 lm off of just 350 mA. While the XM-L gets much brighter with higher current, it takes 700 mA to reach the same brightness (important for battery life when operating all day).



You might have gotten swindled by the "major US LED supply website".

MC-E is a 4 die emitter and binning is done with 350mA driving each of the four LED die. Each die has forward voltage of 3.2v at 350mA. MC-E binned at 300 lumens at 350mA actually only produce 75 lumens per die and consume 3.2v x .350A x 4 die = 4.48 watts. 

XM-L is a single die emitter and binning is done with 700mA driving one die. The single die has forward voltage of 2.9v at 700mA. XM-L binned at 300 lumens at 700mA use 2.9v x .700A x 1 die = 2.03 watts. 

Even if you have the highest bin MC-E available, which i think is 430 lumens at 350 mA, the XM-L still crushes it in both output and efficiency.

Also, make sure you get proven reliable charger and batteries. Some of the generic Li-ion chargers and batteries on the Bay are good, but many of them are unreliable to the point of being fire hazards.


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## csshih (May 14, 2012)

pallidum said:


> Cree MC-E neutral white
> Cree L2 spot optic (6 degree divergence)
> 700 mA buckpuck driver with external potentiometer for dimming
> Generic 2600 mAh battery/charger off the bay
> Project box



Beam collimination with an MC-E will be poor, too, expecially since that L2 optic you are referring to is the Dialight OPTX1006 module originally made for the Cree 7090 Xlamp (i.e. XR-E, etc). 
Only with the XR-E will you get a 6 deg. beam. I have no idea how the MC-E will look but I think there might be hole right in the middle of the beam as there are 4 dies as previously mentioned.

For your purposes I would recommend a XM-L, though something with a higher CRI might be ideal for operating.

Craig


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## pallidum (May 14, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback guys. That is exactly the expertise I was hoping to tap into! I think that an XM-L is in my future. Any narrow optic recommendations? I have found the carclo 20mm lens with an 8.7 degree collimation pattern, which should work well.


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## eh4 (May 14, 2012)

pallidum, if you could come up with a nice recipe for a cheap, high performance and durable surgical light, it would be a valuable contribution to the open source world. You could still sell them assembled if you wanted to.


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## HotWire (May 15, 2012)

I volunteered for more than 10 years with a team of traveling dentists who freely give free dental work to people who needed it. They used a variety of LED headlamps for years with blue and white beams. Some even used cheap 2D flashlights! They filled cavities, injected painkillers, etc. At that time nobody knew of high cree LEDs. Last I heard they were all equipped with portable dental lamps powered by generators. A high cree LED would be great if generators were not available.


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## csshih (May 15, 2012)

pallidum said:


> Thanks for the feedback guys. That is exactly the expertise I was hoping to tap into! I think that an XM-L is in my future. Any narrow optic recommendations? I have found the carclo 20mm lens with an 8.7 degree collimation pattern, which should work well.



How big can the optic be? try the 26.5 (1") carclo optic.

Also, I asked the enova guys how they got their measurements. - 200K lux @ 36cm, which is approximately 26K lux @ 1M.

Craig


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## pallidum (Jun 30, 2012)

csshih said:


> Beam collimination with an MC-E will be poor, too, expecially since that L2 optic you are referring to is the Dialight OPTX1006 module originally made for the Cree 7090 Xlamp (i.e. XR-E, etc).
> Only with the XR-E will you get a 6 deg. beam. I have no idea how the MC-E will look but I think there might be hole right in the middle of the beam as there are 4 dies as previously mentioned.



Do you suppose the above mentioned optic would work with the XM-L? What recommendations do you have for a >200 lumen high CRI LED bulb?


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## Changchung (Jul 3, 2012)

I think that no one noted yet about the lamps for surgeons usually are over the nose or more parallel to the eye view, this is to address the light is where you want to see. The zebralights would not do the best job, I will recomend some Spark models.

Just thinking...


SFMI4UT


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## duckear (Jul 4, 2012)

I am an ENT doc too. The zebra light is a poor substitute for a real headlight when trying to do anything in a hole. For skin work it is okay. 

After a mission trip to Belize, I was looking for something that was BRIGHT and would work with surgical loupes. 

For serious medical use, I run this. 
http://www.designsforvision.com/SurgHtml/S-EDCoa.htm
The headband is not too bad, and replaceable when it gets nasty. 


Overpriced? I am sure it is, but it works. Add a pair of 4.5x loupes, and it pushes the utility and ability of a operating microscope on low power.


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## Chrontius (Jul 9, 2012)

You might want to have a look at the Kavelight; it's a caving headlight designed for CPF members, by CPF members. 

The Malkoff M60 LED module is fairly tight-beamed, though later Cree optics were a bit broader than the old Fraen optics. He's still making the M60 for Elzetta's tac-lights, and Oveready carries them - and their own triple-emitter monsters. The Kavelight's very broadly compatible by design - you should be able to find a nice P60 module to drop in there for about the same price as that Chinese headlamp, I suspect.


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## constantine_a_f (Aug 18, 2012)

This is my first take on a dental flashlight, I include a cost breakdown. I plan on making a new one, smaller with a more concentrated beam. http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...ust-started-a-dental-flashlight-project/page3


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## Ezeriel (Aug 19, 2012)

I vote for the Fenix HL21

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewnproduct.asp?id=92

it's tightly focused, and seems pretty nice to me


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