Background. The aim of this study is to evaluate the illumination characteristics of LED lights objectively to ease the selection of surgical lighting. Methods. The illuminance distributions of 5 main and 4 auxiliary lights were measured in 8 clinically relevant scenarios. For each light and scenario, the maximum illuminance Ec (klux) and the size of the light field d10 (mm) were computed. Results. The results showed: that large variations for both Ec (25-160 klux) and d10 (109-300 mm) existed; that using auxiliary lights reduced both Ec and d10 by up to 80% and 30%; that with segmented lights, uneven light distributions occurred; and that with colored LED lights shadow edges on the surgical field became colored. Conclusions. Objective illuminance measurements show a wide variation between lights and a superiority of main over auxiliary lights. Uneven light distributions and colored shadows indicate that LED lights still need to converge to an optimal design.
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