This invention relates to a surgical headlight having a low intensity light source and a high intensity light source.
Surgeons and other personnel who work in the medical field are often required to illuminate a portion of a patient during surgical procedures. The nature of the surgeon's duties during such procedures requires that they maintain a degree of free use of their hands. These requirements are generally satisfied by illumination assemblies known in the art as surgical headlights. Surgical headlights are mounted on the surgeon's head, and serve to illuminate the patient. The surgical headlight is an optical array held on he surgeon's head with a headband, and having a high intensity light source. Generally, the high intensity light source is connected to the headband by a fiber-optic cable that serves to carry the light from the fiber optic light source to a luminaire. The luminaire is the lighting device attached to the headlight.
Conventional surgical headlights are available in two distinct varieties. The first type of surgical headlight includes a low power light source, such as a LED. This device is typically utilized for surgical applications where less intense directed lighting is required. This type of headlight allows the surgeon free use of both hands. Additionally, the surgeon is untethered and free to move about the surgical area. Unfortunately, the light emitted by such devices is inadequate for many surgical procedures.
The second type of surgical headlight includes a high power light source, such as a fiber-optic light source. These headlights typically remain resident in the operating rooms and are hard wired to a high power light source. While this type of headlight allows the surgeon free use of his hands and a small degree of movement, the headlight remains substantially tethered to the high powered light source, thereby limiting the movement of the surgeon. Additionally, since these headlights typically remain in the operating room, the headlight is usually shared between multiple users and is often found in an undesirable condition, such as covered in sweat. A surgeon entering the operating room generally does not want to use a headlight because it may have just been on the head of the previous user for a significant amount of time. Unfortunately, because conventional high power headlights remain in the operating room, attached to the light source, this problem is experienced by many surgeons. Furthermore, because high power lighting is not needed during the entire procedure the surgeon is required to either remove the headlight from his head, or remain substantially constrained by the tethered device as noted above.
Conventional headlights that provide either low power or high power lighting are known. One such headlight is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,190 to Kloots. Kloots discloses a surgical headlamp that is removably mounted to a headband and utilizes a remote light source connected via a fiber-optic cable.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,291 to Caplan, et al. discloses a small, lightweight, high intensity illumination assembly for use in dental and medical applications. The illumination assembly includes attachment means for removable attachment to headgear such as eyeglasses, face shields, or headbands, and lenses, loupes, and binoculars associated with such headgear. The illumination assembly is able to achieve light weight by using only a single optical element therein, e.g., an aspheric condensing lens, binary optical element, or holographic optical means, and by piping illumination to the optical element from a remote light source by use of a flexible light guide.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,161 to Van Der Bel discloses a video headlight and fiber-optic cable which includes a light and camera assembly adjustably mounted on a headband for assuming a plurality of angular positions relative to the headband. The light and camera assembly includes a light unit closely positioned relative to a video camera unit so that the visual field of the camera unit lies within the lighted field from the light unit in all adjusted positions of the light and camera assembly. The light unit is connected to the forward end of the fiber-optic cable. The rearward end of the fiber-optic cable is connectable to a source of light. The one end of the fiber-optic cable has a flexible, but non-collapsible coupler which bends uniformly when the light and camera assembly is moved relative to the headband.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,224,227 to Klootz discloses an improved surgical headlight assembly having a detachable video camera module. The present invention allows viewers at a remote location to observe an operation procedure on a video monitor from a surgeon's visual perspective. The headlight assembly which is secured via a headband placed around the surgeon's forehead receives light from a light source via a fiber optic cable. The light is sufficient to illuminate the surgeon's area of operation. A video camera is removably affixed to the headlight assembly and, via the use of a roof prism residing within the video camera housing, deflects an erected and accurate image to the video camera, which, in turn, transmits the image to a remote video monitor via a coaxial communications cable. A microphone may be provided to allow the surgeon to provide verbal comments to the viewers observing the procedure. The direction of the beam exiting the headlight assembly may be manually adjusted to insure that the beam of light illuminates the area within the focal point of the viewing lens within the video camera. The entire headlight-video camera assembly rests comfortably between the eyes of the surgeon thereby allowing the surgeon to perform the medical procedure in an unhindered manner.
U.S. Patent Application 20040141312 to Henning, et al. discloses a headlamp/camera unit, especially for medical uses comprising at least one lamp, an electronic camera, a support device that supports the at least one lamp and the camera on the head of a person, and an optical sighting mechanism that projects at least one aiming mark into the image field of the camera illuminated by the lamp.
While the devices described above disclose headlights that can be used for either low power or high power lighting, none of the known headlights are capable of being used for both applications. Therefore, a single headlight assembly that can be used for either low power or high power lighting applications is desired.
Further, a single headlight that is capable of allowing the user the freedom of motion obtainable by an untethered low power light device, and is easily adaptable to receive a light source to increase the light to levels over and above what the low power light is capable of producing alone is desired.
The invention comprises, in one form thereof, a luminaire especially for medical use. The luminaire provides the user with a solid state integral light source that illuminates the subject while allowing the user to move around untethered. The luminaire further allows the user to connect a remote, high-intensity light source via a fiber optic cable when the situation requires high-intensity light. A selector mirror or turret allows the user to select the output of the luminaire, whether it's the internal light source or the remote light source.
More particularly, the invention includes a hybrid surgical headlight system, comprising an illumination outlet affixed to a headband, a solid state light source in communication with the illumination outlet, a remote high intensity light source having a waveguide that is connectable to said illumination outlet, and a selector that selectively directs light from the solid state light source or the high intensity light source to the illumination outlet. The light from the solid state light source passes through a condenser lens and an iris. Similarly, the light from the high intensity light source passes through a condenser lens and an iris contained in an interface housing, which is affixed to the waveguide. The interface housing is fixable to a housing that contains the illumination outlet and the selector. The illumination outlet comprises a projection lens and mirror. The solid state light source is a white LED and is powered by a battery. In one embodiment, the solid state light source is contained in a cartridge with a plurality of optical devices and a means for cooling the solid state light source. The cartridge is fixable to a housing that contains the illumination outlet and the selector. In a further embodiment, the hybrid surgical headlight system comprises a housing that contains the selector and is fixable to a belt. The light from the housing is communicated to the illumination outlet via a waveguide. The solid state light source is integral with the housing, or contained within a cartridge that is fixable to the housing. The selector is a moveable mirror.
An advantage of the present invention is that the luminaire allows the user to illuminate the subject with the freedom to move around untethered or to connect a remote, high-intensity light source via a fiber optic. A selector mirror or turret allows the user to easily select the output of the luminaire.
The present invention is disclosed with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
a is a side view of the surgical headlight according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention; and
b is a cross-sectional schematic of the luminaire according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The examples set out herein illustrate several embodiments of the invention but should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
Referring to
The luminaire housing 102, according to a first embodiment shown in
The waveguide receptacle 112 receives the waveguide 108 by simply providing a hole into which a waveguide jack 134 fits snugly. Alternatively, the waveguide receptacle 112 and the waveguide jack 134 are attached by a quick-disconnect system. The waveguide receptacle 112 aligns the waveguide 108 to be substantially concentric with axis B. Condenser optics 136, 138 and aperture 140 are aligned with axis B and collect the light from the waveguide 108, directing it through the aperture 140. The aperture 140 may comprise a mechanically or electrically controlled iris to allow the user to control the size of the illuminated area. A fixed mirror 142 is aligned with axis B at about a 45° angle to direct the light from the waveguide 108 toward axis A.
The selector mirror 114 is pivoted between an internal source position and a waveguide position by a manual lever or an electrically actuated controller, which may incorporate electromagnets or a small motor. When the selector mirror is in the waveguide position, as shown in
The projection portion 116 is best shown in
In use, the user situates the headband 104 on the user's head such that the projection portion 116 is substantially between the user's eyes to best illuminate the area the user is looking at. The batter pack 132 is clipped to the user's belt and a switch provided on the luminaire housing 102, the electrical wires, or the battery pack 132 is actuated to activate the internal light source 110. The selector mirror 114 is pivoted to the internal source position to allow light from the LED 118 to enter the projection portion 116 and illuminate the subject. The user is not currently tethered by the waveguide and is free to move around while the LED 118 provides illumination. In a situation that requires more intense light and less freedom of movement, the waveguide jack 134 is connected to the waveguide receptacle 112 and the remote light source 106 is activated. Light from the remote light source 106 is transmitted along the waveguide 108 into the luminaire housing 102. The selector mirror 114 is pivoted to the waveguide position and reflects the high-intensity light from the fixed mirror 142 into the projection portion 116, which illuminates the subject. A single switch or lever may be used to control the selector mirror 114 and the internal light source 110 such that the internal light source 110 is actuated when the selector mirror 114 is pivoted to the internal source position and is de-actuated when the selector mirror 114 is pivoted to the waveguide position.
The luminaire housing 202 includes a removable light source cartridge 210 in a second embodiment shown in
An advantage of the configuration described in the second embodiment is the reduced weight of the luminaire. Further, the cartridge 210 may be replaced with a cartridge having newer LED technology as the technology improves. Even further, the cartridge 210 may be hot-swappable so the user may switch between cartridges that use different color LEDs or different optics as needed.
A third embodiment of the luminaire is shown in
A fourth embodiment of the apparatus, shown in
It should be particularly noted that although the selector mirrors described in the first three embodiments of the invention are pivoted between a waveguide position and an internal source position, alternative configurations are imagined. In one variation, the selector mirror translates along a track between the waveguide and internal source positions. For example, the selector mirror 214 in
While the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention.
Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope and spirit of the appended claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/156,990, filed Jun. 20, 2005, which, in turn, claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent application No. 60/601,865, filed Aug. 16, 2004.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11156990 | Jun 2005 | US |
Child | 11262094 | Oct 2005 | US |