Simulating Surgical Luminaires by Ray Files

In every hospital, the operating room is the most demanding work environment. To optimally perform his task, surgical luminaires are an important tool available to the surgeon. However, shortcomings in surgical lighting have been indicated and improvements can still be made to maximize the performance of the surgeon. A surgical luminaire should highlight the wound of the patient, even when the light is partially blocked by the hands of the surgeon and the wound is deep. However, it is not trivial to determine the light distribution of a surgical luminaire in the near field. The illuminance in the surgical site, calculated from intensity distributions, yield erroneous results, as the light source is considered to be a point source, which is only valid in the far field. To obtain correct illuminances in the near field, we obtained ray data using a near-field goniometer, which allowed to take the extent of the light source into account. This paper compares illuminances based on ray files to those experimentally obtained by a photometer. Experimental illuminances and simulated illuminances based on ray data correspond well, as our results show. Accurate illuminances can now be determined in the surgical site using ray data. In future work, illuminances will be calculated in more realistic scenarios as deep wounds, while the light may be partially blocked by the medical staff.

This is representing the first Publication of Valery Ann Jacobs (ETEC) in the context of her PhD work on this matter.
Later Journal Papers will follow.