Observer-reported outcome measures showed that patients ’ driving abilities often are impaired when wearing an immobilizing cast above or below the elbow or a shoulder sling on their dominant arm .
Conclusions The available evidence provides a best-case scenario for when patients can return to driving .
Survey data suggest that patients are returning to driving before observer-reported outcome measures have normalized , indicating that physicians should tell patients to wait longer before driving .
Background Patients often ask their doctors when they can safely return to driving after orthopaedic injuries and procedures , but the data regarding this topic are diverse and sometimes conflicting .
Some studies provide observer-reported outcome measures , such as brake response time or simulators , to estimate when patients can safely resume driving after surgery , and patient survey data describing when patients report a return to driving , but they do not all agree .
We performed a systematic review and quality appraisal for available data regarding when patients are safe to resume driving after common orthopaedic surgeries and injuries affecting the ability to drive .
Questions / purpose sBased on the available evidence , we sought to determine when patients can safely return to driving after ( 1 ) lower extremity orthopaedic surgery and injuries ; ( 2 ) upper extremity orthopaedic surgery and injuries ; and ( 3 ) spine surgery .
The effects of task complexity on brake response time before and after primary right total knee arthroplasty.
OBJECTIVE To study the effects of an increase in task complexity on brake response time ( BRT ) in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty ( TKA ) . DESIGN A prospect i ve repeated- measures design was used . The measurements took place 1 day before and 10 and 30 days after surgery . SETTING Clinic . PARTICIPANTS The data of patients ( N=21 ) who were admitted for primary total arthroplasty of the right knee were pooled for analysis . INTERVENTIONS On each measurement day patients performed 5 practice and 10 test trials for 2 tasks ( 1 simple , 1 complex ) in a car simulator . Task complexity was increased by adding a second movement to the first task performed . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES BRT , reaction time ( RT ) , and movement time were assessed . RESULTS An increase in task complexity increased BRT , RT , and movement time at all measurement times . Right TKA increased BRT by increasing movement time . Thirty days after surgery BRT was no longer increased compared with preoperative values in both tasks . CONCLUSIONS Task complexity consistently increased BRT and its components . The effects of task complexity remained constant throughout the 3 measurements . After right TKA , we suggest patients should be advised to wait 30 days after surgery before resuming driving
Observer-reported outcome measures showed that patients ’ driving abilities often are impaired when wearing an immobilizing cast above or below the elbow or a shoulder sling on their dominant arm .
Conclusions The available evidence provides a best-case scenario for when patients can return to driving .
Survey data suggest that patients are returning to driving before observer-reported outcome measures have normalized , indicating that physicians should tell patients to wait longer before driving .
Background Patients often ask their doctors when they can safely return to driving after orthopaedic injuries and procedures , but the data regarding this topic are diverse and sometimes conflicting .
Some studies provide observer-reported outcome measures , such as brake response time or simulators , to estimate when patients can safely resume driving after surgery , and patient survey data describing when patients report a return to driving , but they do not all agree .
We performed a systematic review and quality appraisal for available data regarding when patients are safe to resume driving after common orthopaedic surgeries and injuries affecting the ability to drive .
Questions / purpose sBased on the available evidence , we sought to determine when patients can safely return to driving after ( 1 ) lower extremity orthopaedic surgery and injuries ; ( 2 ) upper extremity orthopaedic surgery and injuries ; and ( 3 ) spine surgery .