Medical operating room with coloured lighting

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to illumination in medical operating and examination rooms. The present invention also relates to rooms with coloured lighting.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In the medical sector, for example in hospitals, the desire for a clear, bright illumination is prevalent in order to see things as clear as possible. Especially, in operating rooms, it is recognised to be of vital importance that details in the patient can be clearly seen by the surgeon and the other assisting personnel.

Lately however, in many operating fields, there is a tendency to substitute the traditional operating methods with so called minimal invasive treatments, typically, conducted through small ports in the body of the patient, in contrast to the larger incisions typical of open surgery. Minimal invasive procedures are not only used in general surgery but also in specialities as gynecology, oto-rginolaryngolgy, neurosurgery, oftalmology, radiology. Such procedures are called by a variety of adjectives, including endoscopic, laparoscopic, thoracoscopic, and the like, but in the following, for simplicity, the term endoscopic will be used herein to describe these procedures.

In connection with such minimal invasive surgery treatments, the surgeon uses a number of endoscopic steering devices inserted into the body of the patient. In order to follow the operation, small endoscopic cameras are inserted as well, and the imaging is viewed on a computer display.

Typically, the bright, white lighting in the operating room is reflected in the display screen, why operating rooms have been changed in order for the possibility to reduce the light intensity. However, the advantage for the surgeon of a light intensity reduction is a disadvantage for the personnel that is using other equipment in the room, for example the anaesthetists or the nurses that change the instruments during the operation.

DESCRIPTION / SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is the purpose of the invention to improve the conditions for the operation personnel with respect to these disadvantages.

This purpose is achieved by an operating room, wherein a substantial part of the room or the entire room is illuminated with a coloured lighting different from white lighting.

As has turned out, a green coloured lighting reduces the uncomfortable reflection from the computer screens. Experiments have shown that surgeons experience the operation, which can last many hours, as much more relaxed for their eyes than if the operating room has a white lighting.

According to prior art, coloured lighting is generally used in a great variety of situations. Especially, the amusement industry is known for use of coloured lighting in and outside buildings. Also, coloured lighting is used in shops in order to underline certain promotional effects or to attract attention on a general basis. However, to our knowledge, it has not yet been investigated, whether a coloured illumination in operating rooms would be beneficial. The aim with coloured lighting in medical operating rooms is very different from the purpose with coloured lighting in the other aforementioned areas.

By using coloured light in a medical operating room, better working conditions are achieved than by using white light.

According to the invention, it is not necessary that the entire operating room is bathed in light of the same colour. Advantageously, different regions of the room may have a specific light. For example, the light behind the endoscopic monitors may be chosen as green light in order for the surgeon to achieve a relaxed state in addition to the fact that the image quality of the endoscopic monitors as experienced by the eyes of the surgeon is optimised. The light behind the surgeon, where the assisting staff is working, can advantageously be red. Red is the colour of alertness and activity, and the psychological effect may be used to speed up the activity of the assisting staff. Thus, in addition to the practical effect of light in operating rooms, the psychological effects may play a very important role as well and may be utilised in this direction.

Also, the anaesthetists may have their own light in another part of the room. Experiments have shown that white light is preferred by anaesthetists.

For patients to be operated, it has been recognised that the mental state of the patient influences the outcome of the operation. When patients are brought into the operating room, it is of importance that they are as relaxed as possible, because stress situations are experienced as uncomfortable by the patient. A warm, yellow light of the operating room has been found to be of beneficial influence on patients. Thus, besides determining a specific colour for particular zones in the operating room, also the temperature of the colour can be changed in accordance with predetermined criteria.

For different operations, different, staff specific light conditions are typically desired. In order to easily and quickly change from one set up to another, the lighting conditions may be computer controlled, such that preprogrammed setups of the lighting in the operating room can be chosen easily. Beneficially, the different programs are illustrated on a computer interface, where a selection of the different programs is possible by simple pointing actions, for example by a pointing action with a curser steered by a joy stick, a computer mouse or by free hand gestures as described in US patent application No. US2004060037 by Tyrsted and references therein. However, preferred is a touch screen, where special regions on the user interface, for example in the form of icons, optionally outlined as virtual buttons, are to be pressed in order to achieve a light change.

Such a screen may be mounted as a special, dedicated controller on the wall of the operating room, if a simple solution is desired. In an advanced embodiment, the controller for the computerised lighting is integrated in the display of a monitor used for other operative purposes as well and located in the vicinity of the surgeon. As an example, the light control may be achieved by an integrated solution using a personal computer.

The preprogrammed setups for the lighting in the operating room may be programmed in dependence of the needs and desires of the specific surgeon who is to conduct the operation. Alternatively, the presets may depend on the kind of operation. For different kinds of operation, the location of the surgeon is varying and so are the locations of the corresponding endoscopic monitors. In accordance, the light may be changed accordingly. Also during an operation, when a monitor position has to be changed, a simple press on the virtual buttons on the touch screen changes the lighting of the room.

In a further development of the invention, the position of the monitor is detected automatically by a computerised lighting system which determines the location and the extension of the coloured illuminated zones.

In an even further development of the invention, the different apparatuses and/or persons in the operating room are automatically detected by the computerised lighting system, and the lighting automatically controlled and changed in accordance to the position of the personnel and/or the apparatuses. The detection can be performed, for example by automated camera surveillance in the room. Alternatively the detection can be performed by providing microwave detection in the room, for example as described by Mahmoud Tavakoli Shiraji & Shunsuke Yamamoto in the ECE 399 Project paper #1 with title "Human Tracking Devices: the Active Badge/Bat and Digital Angel / Verichip systems" published on the Internet on Web page http://islab.oregonstate.edu/koc/ece399/f03/explo/shiraji-yamamoto.pdf, ultrasound is used to track the position of people by triangulation of signals. Different kind of tags, such as magnetic, electric or radio frequency tags can be used as well.

In a certain embodiment of the invention, the steps to be performed are

• determining the different tasks for an operation in an operating room and determining the related personnel for each of the tasks,
• determining a colour specific effect desired for each of the personnel performing the specific tasks,
• analysing, which part of the room is used for the different determined tasks,
• parting up the room into a number of zones depending on the specific tasks and the specific personnel,
• assigning a specific colour to each of the zones in order to achieve the desired effects
• illuminating the zones with light having the respective specific, assigned colours.

The lighting may be changed simply, if lamps in the ceiling are capable to emit light in different colours. Colour mixing in the lamps may be used in order to emit the correct colour from a specific lamp in the operating room. A specific lamp may emit green light during a certain operation or during a certain time span during the operation and another light for another operation or for another time span during an operation.

According to the invention, operating rooms have been provided, where coloured light is used on the one hand to increase working conditions for the personnel and comfort the patient and, on the other hand, to use the psychological effects of colours to create an overall more pleasant environment for the personnel, despite the fact that concentration and performance is increased.

The above mentioned colours are only mentioned by way of example, and other colours may be used in the rooms according to the invention in accordance with the actual needs and desires. For example, blue may be used with a psychologically calming effect.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the drawing, where

FIG. 1

illustrates an operating room with different zones according to the invention,

FIG. 2

illustrates a computerised lighting system according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION / PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates an operating room 1 schematically. An operating table 2 is typically located substantially in the middle of the room. The surgeon 4 is located on one side of the table, whereas the monitoring endoscopic screen 3 is located on the opposite side of the operating table 2. The anaesthetists 6 with their equipment are located in the upper end of the room, whereas the assistants that provide surgery supplies from a storage facility 7 are located behind the surgeon. According to the invention, the room is parted into different zones, for example, as illustrated wit a first zone enclosing the monitor 3, a second zone around the anaesthetists equipment 5 and a third zone for the supply behind the surgeon 4. The first zone may advantageously be green, the second zone white or yellow, and the third zone may be red or rose coloured. Other colours may be used and other zones may be added or substituted with.

In order to achieve light in the different zones, lamps may be provided, which are capable to adjust the colour from a mixture of coloured light inside the lamp. In addition, the lamp can provide light as directed light cones such that a turning, tilting and mobbing of the lamp changes the direction and location of the light. This way, defined zones in the room can be illuminated in accordance with the desires.

Figure 2 illustrates the computerised lighting 11 system according to the invention. A computer 12 is electronically connected 13 to a touch screen display 14 showing a user interface 15 with virtual buttons 16, each of which is associated with a certain lighting configuration in the operation room 1. In dependence of the selection by the buttons in the user interface 15, different light scenarios are provided in the operating room. For this task, the computer 12 is electronically connected to a lamp 18. The lamp 18 is configured to emit light of a preselected colour by colour mixing inside the lamp or by using appropriate light colour filtering. The light is emitted directional in a cone 19, for example by using, prisms, lenses and/or mirrors, in order to provide light of a specific colour only in a certain zone 10 of the operating room 1.