Winning Combination: State-of-the-Art Operating Room and High-Tech Lighting

By Jeff Gatzow

In the last few years operating rooms are being integrated to optimize space, efficiency and intra-operative decision making. The development of minimally invasive surgical techniques and other technologies have made the operating room suite progressively more complex and more difficult to manage. A centralized operating room minimizes this complexity by integrating several components so nurses and surgeons may run these from a single interface.

A neurosurgical operating suite that fully integrates an intra-operative MR scanner with all surgical and diagnostic tools necessary to perform complicated neurosurgical procedures is the trend in renovations and new construction of hospitals.

Sacred Heart Hospital and the Brain Spine Institute
By using state-of-the-art technology acquisition and integration as the driver to establish the Brain and Spine Institute, Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based Sacred Heart Hospital has created a world-class neurosurgery program and simultaneously paved the foundation for a pathway to tertiary care development throughout the institution.

Sacred Heart Hospital shows visitors from national and international hospitals how this unique technology and Smart OR is put to use during actual brain and spinal surgery cases – enabling Sacred Heart Hospital to showcase its unique intra-operative scanning capabilities and surgical procedures to hospital practitioners across the globe.

A unique feature to these operating rooms is two blue, floor-to-ceiling glass walls, which were selected by the Sacred Heart Hospital team for a few reasons. First, the doctors didn’t want the harsh lighting of white light in the operating rooms, especially for the duration of many brain surgeries; the blue light is more soothing for the medical team. Secondly, the futuristic appearance of these back-lit glass panels makes these operating rooms appear even more high-tech.

The resulting environment is both innovative and forward-looking appropriately reflecting the activities and technology within. The walls are easy to disinfect as well a being aesthetically pleasing.

Meeting challenges
Selecting the lighting behind the glass walls was challenging and had a number of considerations. To remove the glass walls to change burned-out bulbs would be expensive and shut down the OR for upwards of 24 hours — costing the hospital time and money. Additionally, because the operating suites have an intra-operative MRI, many traditional lighting technologies would not work. For example, fluorescent lights can’t be used because they generate noise artifacts on patient scans. And incandescent bulbs have an extremely short lifespan in an MRI suite because the machine’s magnetic field stresses the bulbs’ filaments.

The architects and engineers knew LED luminaires would be the answer to these challenges. LED lights are safe because they do not use filaments that can react with magnetic fields, nor do they emit radio frequencies. Additionally, by not having a filament, LED lighting eliminates the potential for an image-degrading artifact that can appear when an incandescent bulb is at the point of failure.

Customized LED Lighting
The Sacred Heart Hospital team wanted the blue walls evenly lit and the lighting to have gradation from top to bottom; this required finding an LED lighting company capable of such customization.

To create the subtle LED lighting gradation that the neurosurgical team wanted, lighting engineers designed special circuit boards with power variations, which enabled them to reduce the amount of light output gradually from top-to-bottom.

The lighting is exactly what’s needed to illuminate the blue walls. The highly specialized surgery that the Sacred Heart neurosurgical team performs at the Brain Spine Institute requires superb concentration. The customized LED lighting helps sooth the OR and is virtually maintenance free.

Jeff Gatzow is Everbrite Lighting product manager and may be reached at jgatzow@everbrite.com, 414-529-7178. Based in Milwaukee, Wis., Everbrite Lighting is a division of Everbrite, LLC.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for the May/June issue of MCD, which spotlights healthcare lighting.

Note: Photos courtesy of Sacred Heart Hospital, Eau Claire, Wis.