# Good headlamp for doctor for minor surgeries?



## lutero79 (Feb 26, 2010)

Let me preface this by saying that I am new to the headlamp world. I am an emergency physician, and do minor surgeries in the ER almost daily. I have to have good light to find foreign bodies in wounds, detailed skin repairs, etc. I have a Coast (exact model unknown, but has 6 small LEDs, came from Bass Pro Shop) that projects a very good beam of light for detail and general work at home. I do not want to use the same headlamp at work and home, and considered just buying another one of this same model; but I want the best light I can get (for a reasonable price ~50$ or so) and wanted some expert opinion. Thanks in advance!


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## Ajax517 (Feb 27, 2010)

I have a Zebralight H501 and it's a great light. 
Beautiful artifact-free flood, super lightweight, barely know I'm wearing it.
At $59 it's a little above your budget.

I also have a Garrity 8LED that I got cheap from Woot.com.
It's heavier and not as nice a beam but it has multiple settings and levels to play with. Can be had for $10-30 if you bargain shop.


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## Flying Turtle (Feb 27, 2010)

The Rayovac Sportsman 1AA headlamp could be another to consider. The main beam might be almost too bright up close, but it does have a diffuser to swing in front of the lens. There also are two red and one blue LEDs which can take advantage of the diffuser. This is a plastic light and should be waterproof enough for disinfection. I got mine at WalMart for about $20 a couple years ago. I think they are still on the market.

Welcome to CPF, lutero79. You've come to the right place.

Geoff


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## generallobster (Feb 27, 2010)

you want a zebra light. really is the best light for close up hand's free work. I might choose the AA version as you can always get aa batteries in the supply room at the hospital should your rechargables run out, but the Li-ion models can give you an extra 70-90 lumens which could come in handy.


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## Offroad'Bent (Feb 27, 2010)

For dental work under magnification, the Fenix HP10 is excellent. May be more than you need for your line of medicine though, and it's more than $50.

Did you see the 300 lumen $7 light on eBay I posted?


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## Mike V (Feb 28, 2010)

Zebralight H501.


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## JimmyM (Feb 28, 2010)

Has any thought been given to the color temperature of the light? You probably do not want a blue-ish tint. A warm tint would be better for rendering flesh tones. You don't want a color that would reduce color contrast/rendering.
Just my $0.02.


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## Frank E (Feb 28, 2010)

Think I'd discharge myself if a surgeon or Doctor in A&E came anywhere near me with a £50 head torch, let alone a $50.
I'd expect to see them using an established medical brand and device like a Welch Allyn 49020 or Heine MD1000.
I know they are expensive but so is minor surgery and surgeons aren't exactly poor. I'd think they were a right grip.


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## chenko (Feb 28, 2010)

I used a Zebralight H501w to inspect animal wounds: it is great because of the smooth flood beam with no hotspot and obviously hands-free lighting. Neutral tint (h501*W*) is the way to go.


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## Whomprat (Feb 28, 2010)

Like Frank said, I think I'd stick with the Welch Allyn solid state headlamp. It's not cheap, and there's a design flaw with the routing of the cord on the headband (it get worn out and breaks) but they service it fine and I've fixed one myself. The ones that break are used 10 hours a day for about a year before they need to be fixed. they really do put out a very nice beam though. Much smoother than any other light I've seen. One of our dermatologists uses one.. He has about 4 batteries he rotates throughout the day.

I brought it all kinds of headlamp and led flashlights, but the skin always looked better under the welchallyn.


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## Apollo Cree (Feb 28, 2010)

What are the requirements in terms of sanitation? Do you need to sterilize it? Even if you don't need sterilization, it would seem you'd want to be sure it's not a vector for infection due to cracks and crevices, fabric headstraps, etc. I remember stories about doctor's ties being a vector of infection. 

Do you want a bright spot, or a wide floody beam? 

I don't know if color rendition would matter that much. It seems that the diagnostic use of color discrimination usually involves larger areas and you'd be using the headlamp for looking for small things. 

I wonder if there might not be some extra value for non-white lights? Would red or some other color be useful for discriminating things with blood on them, etc.? UV lights? (Yes, I know, I'm off on a tangent.)


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## Offroad'Bent (Mar 1, 2010)

Frank E said:


> Think I'd discharge myself if a surgeon or Doctor in A&E came anywhere near me with a £50 head torch, let alone a $50.
> I'd expect to see them using an established medical brand and device like a Welch Allyn 49020 or Heine MD1000.
> I know they are expensive but so is minor surgery and surgeons aren't exactly poor. I'd think they were a right grip.



My Fenix has a similar beam colour, brightness and pattern to a $800 dental light. It's also waterproof enough to scrub the switch. I just keep it as backup, (Or to run home in the dark) but know colleagues who use it for field work. If I was to use it a lot I'd rig up a pocket battery case, perhaps a rechargeable lithium from Batteryspace.

If I work with loupes I usually use a custom loupe light that a CPF member machined for me,along with a belt-battery pack and waterproof switch, but it was $300 or so, not $800. At the time it was smaller and lighter than anything out there. I would get no worse care from a doc with one of those.

Mostly I work under a microscope, and again I had a custom P7 light machined up that is superior to the Scope's medical-grade light for my needs, for a small fraction of the cost.

Basically, if my doc had a light with similar lumens and beam, I don't care if it's made by Mercedes Benz or Joe Candlepower.


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## lutero79 (Mar 2, 2010)

That's enough votes for the zebralight for me to give it a try. Frank, you're funny ($500 headlight, ha!); I'm sure my patients prefer a $50 headlight to next to no light, as our minor rooms have no surgical lights. And I'm sure we'd all prefer it to the $10 dollar one that the nurses bought me for Christmas. The majority of my patients do not have jobs or insurance; a $50 headlamp is probably pretty impressive to most of them! Those surgical lights are so hot neither me nor the patient can stand to sit under them, if there happens to be one in the room, anyway. I have to say, I never knew what I was missing before I got the one I use at home, but now my wife makes fun of me for wearing it 24/7; that is until I used it to finally find the clitoris, hehehe!:naughty:


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## grnamin (Mar 3, 2010)

My Dad used a Princeton Tec Apex Pro for additional lighting for subclavian catheterization procedures.


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## RobertM (Mar 4, 2010)

Frank E said:


> Think I'd discharge myself if a surgeon or Doctor in A&E came anywhere near me with a £50 head torch, let alone a $50.
> I'd expect to see them using an established medical brand and device like a Welch Allyn 49020 or Heine MD1000.
> I know they are expensive but so is minor surgery and surgeons aren't exactly poor. I'd think they were a right grip.



I agree, professionals use professional tools. Do you think a good barber is going to be using department store scissors or a professional auto mechanic using some cheap Chinese tools. I doubt it.


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## hopkins (Mar 5, 2010)

During coverage of the Haiti earthquake saw one group of doctors
and dentists with
*Petzl MYO RXP headlamps* 
doing procedures.
I think its the most comfortable headlamp I own ie form fitted.
and it has the diffuser for wide flood light if you don't need a spot light.

Here's the spot size at arms length.


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## generallobster (Mar 5, 2010)

I have to disagree, I still think the zebralight is an excellent light for the required task. He's using the light for laceration treatment and wound inspection, not a 9 hour intra-op whipple procedure. Thus a $4,000 fiber optic welch allyn head light system is not needed. A small portable bright headlight is ideal in the ED, and in terms of infection risk, I would be much more worried about the gurney, chairs, counter tops and stethoscope if I were the patient--the head light should in theory never come into contact with human secretions/excrement where as the same can not be said of the other objects.


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## dymonite69 (Mar 5, 2010)

RobertM said:


> I agree, professionals use professional tools. Do you think a good barber is going to be using department store scissors or a professional auto mechanic using some cheap Chinese tools. I doubt it.



Horses for courses. Are you closing a simple wound or performing microsurgery? Are you examining a throat or removing a tonsil? Do you wish to illuminate a surface or look down a cavity? Most bedside procedures rarely require a high-end light source. An even beam and good colour rendition are probably the most important qualities. As far as infection control is concerned it is impossible to sterilise these items completely apart from a quick wipe with light bleach.


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## Linger (Mar 5, 2010)

$49 dollar suggestion (and IMHO compares to a $140 mass marketed headlamp)
zebralight is great, of course. Perfectly smooth beam...but in this case a little too diffused?
I'm going to suggest a Quark with Prism headlight attachment. The r2 versions at 4sevens.com come with the quark prism kit free ($20dollars otherwise).
With the diffuser on the beam, it will provide a smooth artifact free beam that focuses more light into a center hotspot then zebralight. Excellent performance and build and the prism adapter comes off returning the Quark to a regular flashlight.
IMHO it's excellent choice for arms-length task lighting.


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## ericjohn (Dec 8, 2012)

Even though I have had crappy experience with them, I would suggest taking 2 Pelican MityLite 1900, and rigging up some sort of headband with them attached near each of your ears. The lamp is a Xenon burner and makes a light like sunshine. That is good for accurate color retention. I would not rely on these lights as EDC though. The lamp does NOT last that long (very expensive to replace) and the plastic warps very easily. I do not know of any "regular" headlamps with Xenon burners, so you would probably have to do the similar with any other pocket sized Xenon flashlight.


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## Jiri (Nov 1, 2015)

I would definitelly recommend Fenix HL50 these days (2015) for doctors. I am using one as a vet


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## ericjohn (Nov 2, 2015)

Do a search for some Terralux headlamps.

Some Terralux LEDs produce a light that is similar in color to an incandescent light.

I recently purchased a Terralux Light Star 80 penlight and I am amazed at the color rendition of it's light.

I have heard many times (and have witnessed it as well) that the medical field uses incandescent lights as opposed to LEDs, because they show the true colors of eyes, wounds flesh etc. This is something that is critical for medical personnel and it is also the reason why the medical field is still using incandescents.

Make sure the model you purchase has a high color rendering index.


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## Leslie (Nov 7, 2015)

I have foxelli headlamp and im very happy with my purchase. my friends husband who is a tattoo artist also got foxelli headlamp for his work and also very pleased with its performance.
Long battery life, USB rechargeable and super bright. highly recomended


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## WigglyTheGreat (Nov 7, 2015)

I recommend the Zebralight h52Fw. It takes aa batteries with a neutral tint and has a frosted lens which makes a smooth beam without being all flood. Too much flood isnt good for concentrating on one smaller work area.


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## okent (Nov 17, 2015)

Fenix MC11. I've been using it daily in my practice for years and give one to each new resident physician that I train.
I'm an ENT and use it to look in small spaces.
Clip it onto a headband with the light hanging between your eyes and it is about as good as it gets. 
They are cheap and bullet proof. Nothing better that I've found.


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