Stars of the theatre show true colours

 HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie considers some of the key criteria for healthcare estates/engineering and clinical personnel considering purchasing operating lights, and discovers some of the innovations now on offer from leading suppliers.

Surgical lighting has developed considerably over the past few years, and buyers now face a wealth of choice. Manufacturers can each provide good reasons why their particular technology is ‘best’, whether it be the quality of the light field, the ability to adjust colour temperature to enable surgeons to get a better view of tissue, bones, and blood vessels, the colour rendering index (CRI), i.e. the way the colour is made up from a spectrum of different colours, and, of particular importance to healthcare estates personnel, efficiency and power consumption. Sound guidance on some of the key criteria, and recommendations on, for instance, minimum luminance and CRI levels for different types of surgery, are provided in the latest edition of the LG2 ‘Hospitals and healthcare buildings’ lighting guide, published by CIBSE and its Society of Light and Lighting (SLL). Principal author, Nicholas Bukorovi´c, (interviewed for a separate article for the next issue of HEJ) says that, while the last LG2 guide was first published in 1989 – he will start writing an updated version later this year – the guidance is still entirely relevant, and should act as a useful reference guide when selecting surgical lighting either for new theatres or to replace existing systems.

Key criteria set out