“The variety, charm and beauty of life, are made up of light and shade…”
Leo Tolstoy
I don’t recall everything that I studied for my surgical primary examination, but I do remember that the minimum brightness for an operating theatre light was 1000 lux. I was also taught that a lux was the output of a single candle, but I am not sure that is true. Perhaps you shouldn’t believe everything in surgical text books. Prior to general anaesthesia, surgery was a rare event, crude and nearly always an emergency. Nothing fancy was being done so any old light would do. By the late 19th century surgery was flourishing, complex, fiddly things were being attempted. Good light shining into the surgical field was a necessity. This was difficult to achieve, with the major obstacle being the shadow produced by the surgeon themselves. This neurosurgical operating theatre was designed by surgeon Norman Dott, for the Western Hospital in Edinburgh. Light from every conceivable angle reduced the impact of surgical shadows. I don’t know how successful it was, but it has to one of the coolest operating rooms I have ever seen. #whatwouldtheanaethetistdo #letsmakelemonade
Pen Paint and Scalpel 