Queen Victoria Hospital equips 10 new theatres with BERCHTOLD Hybrid LED lights

Published: 10-Feb-2014

Leading specialist centre provides surgeons with better facilities for intricate surgery

The Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead has equipped 10 new theatres with BERCHTOLD Hybrid LED lights.

A leading specialist centre for plastic, maxillofacial and reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation, the hospital helps people who have been injured or disfigured through accidents or disease.

Now employing 900 staff, the hospital has recently undertaken a major redevelopment of its surgical facilities, creating 10 new theatres within a new purposely-designed unit.

Within the new facility the clinical team had a number of specific requirements based upon the type of surgery undertaken. One was to employ operating lights with outstanding performance.

Even a routine operation can turn complex if complications occur. This is when the performance of the illumination shows. Inferior lights can leave a surgeon struggling to identify structures and sites of bleeding

Asit Khandwala, consultant plastic surgeon, said: “The hospital specialises in micro, plastic, and maxillofacial surgeries and requires extremely efficient, bright, shadowless and cool lights to facilitate very fine surgery.”

The nature of complex reconstructive surgery carried out at East Grinstead can see operations regularly lasting many hours, often with multi-surgeon teams. This level of surgery demands that the surgeons’ view is maximised and eye strain minimised as far as possible. Decent light is not just a preference, but becomes mandatory for long operations.

Khandwala said: “Even a routine operation can turn complex if complications occur. This is when the performance of the illumination shows. Inferior lights can leave a surgeon struggling to identify structures and sites of bleeding.

“Blood is a great absorber of the visible spectrum, so lights need to be able to combat this difficult environment and maintain the surgical view. In my opinion, surgical outcome and quality is hugely dependent on the quality of lights used.”

The theatre team at Queen Victoria Hospital had previous experience working with BERCHTOLD’s CHROMOPHARE HID (Gas Discharge) lights. The new build provided a great opportunity for BERCHTOLD to introduce its latest development in operating lights, the F Generation Hybrid LED, which combines a patented one-piece reflector system with LED light engines. This new type of light uses all the benefits of a reflector to create the same homogenous and shadow-free light provided by the previous HID system, but this time combined with the latest generation LED elements.

The result is an exceptionally slim light head with no moving parts internally, yet able to achieve a large focal range, from a small spot to a very wide field. All this has been achieved with a full 160,000 Lux shadow-free illumination.

Clinical directorate manager for theatres, Mike Bennett, said: “We chose these lights not only because of the obvious high performance, but we have used BERCHTOLD for many years and know that the suspension systems are of a high quality and durable. Often it is forgotten that lights must be moveable with ease throughout the life of the theatre. The new lights are especially easy to clean and are IP53 certified, which means they are impervious to fluids and well able to withstand the rigours of theatre environment.

The new lights are especially easy to clean and are IP53 certified, which means they are impervious to fluids and well able to withstand the rigours of theatre environment

Each theatre is equipped with triple light heads to cope with the demands of working on multiple operative sites simultaneously with two, three or even four surgeons. For this reason and to provide best ergonomics the lights are not centrally mounted in the room.

Stephen Coleman, project lead for BERCHTOLD, explained that in consultation with the clinical team and the architects it was suggested that the mounting of the lights and pendants were best offset from above the operating table to provide the best free-moving space of each light head and to create an unhindered operating space where in-light cameras are also used for teaching.

Dr Ali Diba, consultant anaesthetist, added: “To date there has not been one complaint about the lighting, which means we must have got it right. The fact that these lights are relatively weightless and easy to manoeuvre, and that there are no fixing stems in the way, means we can position the lights exactly where we want them.”

You may also like