Light sources are used in medical procedures for a variety of purposes including illuminating dark or poorly lit regions, heating, burning, ablating and/or destroying tissue, organs, vessels or other body structures, curing materials, such as glues or epoxies, and a variety of other uses. Different frequencies, bandwidths or colors of light are oftentimes used for different medical applications. For example, white light may be used for general screening of a patient and blue or ultra violet light may be used to cure certain glues or epoxies.
Typical light sources are large electronic devices which sit outside the sterile environment and are connected into the sterile field by a cord or lightpipe. The lightpipe is sterilized between uses which the light source remains outside of the sterile environment and need not be sterilized. Configuring the light source so that the base may remain outside of the sterile environment, long cords are required to allow the user to manipulate the light with respect to the patient. Longer cords result in a greater chance that the cord will become tangled, that medical personnel might trip over the cord, that the cord will get in the way of other instruments or cords and a variety of other risk factors.
The light sources are powered by electricity, typically 110-220 volts of indirect current coming from a wall socket. The light sources are physically tied to the wall socket by a power cord and depend upon a building's electricity system for power. This dependency upon the electrical system can cause problems if the electricity is compromised or stopped, for example during a power outage. In addition, the movement of the light source within the operating suites, or other medical room, is constrained by the cord and the device can only be moved so far without unplugging the light source and replugging into a closer wall socket, if one exists, or the use of extension cords. In addition, current light sources need to be regularly serviced and often repaired as the light sources are used for multiple patients.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a disposable light source as described herein.