# headlamp medical use



## 52bravo (Jul 2, 2006)

hi am new here, i am a danish army medic amd EMT soon MD.

i need a headlamp to do medical procedures, it has to have a lot of light, like a OR light for surgery. 

the new LED from http://en.petzl.com/petzl/Accueil looks good on the site. i have look at the MYO XP.
the movie looks good, but i dont know if the LED lights give enough light.
i have some old LED and thay only give light at max 6 ft and real dont give enough light to do medical procedures.

have also look at the PT apex, look to be better then the MYO.

have some one here experience whit the the new LED light? do thay give enough light or shut i go for halogen/Xenon headlamp? when i need a lot of light, which halogen/Xenon headlamp then?


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## Illum (Jul 2, 2006)

What type of medical use?

as in you doing field surgery using a head lamp?

headlamp section:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews_index/reviews_index_headlamps.htm


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## 52bravo (Jul 2, 2006)

yes for field surgery


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## cy (Jul 2, 2006)

You want to get ahold of JSburley and look at Stenlight caving headlamp. it's driven by 2x 18650 li-ion pack or 6x AA for mission critical uses. it's got mult-steps so you can control light level. a reflector option will be available soon.


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## Illum (Jul 2, 2006)

heres a review:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/stenlight_s7.htm

the Stenlight S7 is probably the god of headlamps


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## NoFair (Jul 2, 2006)

I have a PT Apex and I've done field autopsies with it. It is bright enough and, unless you get a bad main led, gives good colour rendition to see bruising, blood vessels and so on. 
The 5mm leds give good area light to set up camp, cook, fix gear and so on if the light disipline isn't too harsh. They can also run for ages on a set of batteries. If you can get Lithiums they give better performance and endure cold a lot better. 

You might want to put some scotch tape over the lens if your only use is short-range (<5m) in order to diffuse the light. 

I don't think a Stenlight is better than an Apex for your use. For caving, skiing and some other uses I'd prefer it though. 

Good luck in the sandbox if that's were you're going.

Sverre


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## 52bravo (Jul 2, 2006)

yes it in short-range i will have a lot of light. i like the working time on the LED light but have zero experience whit the new high power LED´s.


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## cy (Jul 2, 2006)

PT Apex is an excellent headlamp, but is not in the same league as Stenlight, which cost aprox. $300 VS $68 for Apex at brightguy.


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## greenLED (Jul 2, 2006)

Just a word of caution, LED lights may not provide the right color contrast for adequate diagnosis and differentiation of tissue. I get this from my brother, who's a dentist and has used a hybrid (LED/incan) headlamp in "field" conditions.


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## cy (Jul 2, 2006)

wonder what bins those $2,500+ medical luxeon headlamps use?


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## Handlobraesing (Jul 2, 2006)

Dentists usually use filtered halogen light that yields around 5,000K and CRI close to 100. 

LED does not render flesh correctly.


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## mrme (Jul 3, 2006)

Yeah, I would make sure the LED gives you the color retention you want. You will likely need to ditinguish subtle shades of red for surgery, which is not easy to do with blue light. Incadescent has a lot more in the red part of the spectrum. Make sure any incadescent you get has a textured reflector to remove rings and smooth out the beam. Getting one with a voltage regulator keeps the light white. 

Also, make sure you get enough sidespill. A harsh hot spot can make for a frustrating light when dealing with things up close.


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## Commander (Jul 4, 2006)

Hi 52bravo!

I am glad to see you on this great forum too!

The PT APEX is what you need IMO!

Here is the review:

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/pt_apex.htm

Homepage:

http://www.princetontec.com/products/index.php?id=2&type=1&use=0

/Commander


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## 52bravo (Jul 5, 2006)

HI commander we danes are all over net.

i will look into the apex. it look to give the most light for the buck.


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## Commander (Jul 5, 2006)

52bravo said:


> HI commander we danes are all over net.



Of course - our mission is to conquer the internet 

PM sent.


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## cy (Jul 5, 2006)

once you find out what bin codes those $2,500+ luxeon medical headlamps are using. you should be able to replicate by inserting what ever color/tint is desired to show flesh tones properly.

current trend has been shifting tward bluish tint to produce a white tint. VS early luxeons were biased twords warm colors, closer to incand...


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## snowleopard (Jul 5, 2006)

Hi 52bravo,
It depends on what situation you'll be in using the headlamp: will you have AC or DC (from a vehicle or generator) available, or are you really on your own. How often can you be resupplied with batteries or recharge batteries?
Here's a link to surgical lights:
http://www.medical-lighting.com/burton_xenalux.html
Even the headlamp is $1000+ and seems to be intended to just supplement a 300W xenon light. 
Their lights are at 4200 degree color temperature.
I think the main question is going to be brightness. LED lights might not be bright enough to be ideal, but if you're very limited in the battery power you can carry they might be best.
Why don't you ask Danish military people what they use, how bright is needed? 
Silva makes some excellent bright headlamps, but they're impossible to find in the US, so we in the US aren't familiar with them.
--Walter (aka snowleopard)


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## jar3ds (Jul 5, 2006)

snowleopard said:


> Hi 52bravo,
> It depends on what situation you'll be in using the headlamp: will you have AC or DC (from a vehicle or generator) available, or are you really on your own. How often can you be resupplied with batteries or recharge batteries?
> Here's a link to surgical lights:
> http://www.medical-lighting.com/burton_xenalux.html
> ...


 thats for surgery... not for a field medic...


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## CLHC (Jul 5, 2006)

Lot's of great recommendations here. How about the Brunton L3?

Hope you find what you're looking for and Enjoy!


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## Illum (Jul 5, 2006)

mrme said:


> Yeah, I would make sure the LED gives you the color retention you want. You will likely need to ditinguish subtle shades of red for surgery, which is not easy to do with blue light. Incadescent has a lot more in the red part of the spectrum. Make sure any incadescent you get has a textured reflector to remove rings and smooth out the beam. Getting one with a voltage regulator keeps the light white.
> 
> Also, make sure you get enough sidespill. A harsh hot spot can make for a frustrating light when dealing with things up close.




No headlamp will give the quality of the 2000 watt surgical lamps in the hospital, but a combination of LED and xenon should aveage out on the correct spectrum of light for color rendition...if not, any filters?


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## CLHC (Jul 5, 2006)

I've heard/read of fiber optic illumination for the medical field. Regarding LEDs for such use here's an excerpt:

ACULED™ - or All Color Ultrabright LED – PerkinElmer's compact, multi-use LED designed for a variety of specialty lighting applications including. . .medical lighting.

There's also these Cermax Xenon lamps that "utilize an integrated parabolic or elliptical reflector to produce high intensity, collimated or focused output of light at power levels from 80 - 2,700 Watts. Due to the Xenon lamps broad color spectrum, the lamp is filtered to emit either visible, UV or IR light depending on application and usage. The lamps are ideal for such applications as medical endoscopy, surgical microscopy, and fiber optic illumination."


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## The Porcupine (Jul 6, 2006)

Good grief! Those pesky danes are everywhere! Hello guys!
Anyways, I used my BD Spot for "field surgery" yesterday. My wife (she's a nurse and told me what to do! ) had some minor surgery done and needed the bandages changed. I have never used the BD light for something like that before, but it rendered color pretty accurately. Not sure it would be enough for real surgery, though.


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## ICUDoc (Jul 6, 2006)

Hi guys

I have actually tried LEDs in the operating theatre- it was a very short trial because the 3*UWOKs in 20mm reflectors at 1000mA which is as bright as hell on direct vision or in dim lighting literally pales in comparison to the average headlamp in our hospital. The colour rendition is poor too, but the brightness just wasn't good enough for even gross general surgery. For dark-adapted eyes though it may be nearly bright enough, as long as there is no ambient light to speak of.
Good luck in your search!


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## wasBlinded (Jul 6, 2006)

The surgical headlamps in our hospital use an HID light box with a fiberoptic cable carrying the light to the headpiece. As you can imagine, these are very bright, and I think LEDs would have no role in the OR as a light source.


What we are talking about here is fieldwork, which is an entirely different matter. In this instance, a Luxeon headlamp would probably work well under low ambient light conditions. For this kind of work too, I don't think the somewhat poorer color accuracy of a luxeon, as compared to an incan, is important.


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## 52bravo (Jul 6, 2006)

it has to runing on batteries, and be in a size for bag. 
will a combination of LED and xenon give me more light then the new LED?


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## Rudi (Jul 6, 2006)

For close-up work I recomment the Princeton Tec EOS with UCL-LDF diffusing lens glued to the front. It has self-contained batteries, light is very bright and white, three intensities, good run-time, inexpensive and very well made, small and compact and very comfortable to wear.


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## NoFair (Jul 6, 2006)

52bravo said:


> it has to runing on batteries, and be in a size for bag.
> will a combination of LED and xenon give me more light then the new LED?



You don't get more light with a combo light, but usually the leds give you long runtimes and less light.

I forgot to add some nice lights that should fit; Silva and Mila make 20W headlamps with large (NiMH) battery-pack you wear on your body. These give a very bright flood with little artifacts. They often have two settings (5-10W and 20-25W) In Norway they will be in the $300 price range, but they should be about half to 2/3 of that in the US. These might be a bit large, but they are very nice.

For smaller incans the Princeton Tec Yukon Extreme Headlamp is very nice with a belt mounted 8AA pack. This means that the piece you wear on your head is very light. It has a bright regulated incan with 2 settings and 2 settings for the leds. SilverFox has a great review of it in review section of these forums. 

efunctional.com has it on sale for $47 I think. Should be great for your use, you might want to put some Scotch tape or diffusing film to get a smooth beam for close up use. 

Good luck.


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## CLHC (Jul 6, 2006)

Here's another one by Gerber called the Meridian Three-Color LED Headlamp. It has a 1W White regulated LED plus Red and Green. Uses three (3) AAA batteries.


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## cy (Jul 6, 2006)

good grief! didn't realize so much light was needed in surgery. 

to get output delivered by HID/fibre optic would require an equally bright source.

HID Storm would deliver enough lumens, but seems it would deliver too much light for closeup work?


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## CLHC (Jul 6, 2006)

Hey! I've always been partial to NiteRider and Light & Motion HID lights—

Nice!


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## Commander (Jul 7, 2006)

52bravo said:


> it has to runing on batteries, and be in a size for bag.
> will a combination of LED and xenon give me more light then the new LED?



What new LEDs are on your mind?

You need "LUXEON® III LEDs". Not 5 mm LEDs (new or old).

Have you seen my personal message?

/Commander


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## 52bravo (Jul 7, 2006)

pm send

it is the luxeon i call the new ones.


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## PeLu (Jul 8, 2006)

52bravo said:


> i need a headlamp to do medical procedures, it has to have a lot of light, like a OR light for surgery.
> ....
> i have look at the MYO XP.



This might indeed be a good choice. It's diffusor will be a real benefit here. 

A Stenlight will not work so well unless a real flood option is available. 

The problem is, that most lights are too focused for your job. 

And colour rendering from almost any white LED is much better than anything people had to use for decades. 

I'm heavily involved into cave rescue for more than a quarter century and I've done and assisted some medical work with headlights (as you may expect). 

And as most of your work is quite close up and your eye is usually adapted to the darker scenery, you do not need so much als light as you might expect. Too bright of an headlamp will also annoy your (conciuos) patient and other people.


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