Doctor, can I drive with this plaster? An evidence based response

When Can I Drive After Orthopaedic Surgery? A Systematic Review

“…Tests of braking function are not applicable with upper extremity surgeries. Healthy patients driving on courses indicated that it is unsafe for patients with most forms of upper extremity immobilization to drive [6,7,20,21]. A driving simulator that includes avoiding obstacles could be a better method of evaluating driving ability than an isolated evaluation of braking function, as there is more to driving and avoiding accidents than accounting for the time it takes to press the brake pedal.…”

“…Two of these articles discussed procedures that were not on our original list, one was not indexed in either database, one did not have driving as a primary focus, and the remaining six articles discussed driving with limb immobilization. Thirty-four articles had data relevant to our study Question 1 [1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 22, 23, 26-30, 34, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 45-50, 53, 55, 57, 60, 63, 64], eight had data relevant to Question 2 [2,6,7,17,20,21,43,46], and seven had data relevant to Question 3 [3,31,32,35,54,58,59] (Table 1). The range of MINORS scores for comparative studies was 17 to 24, and the range for noncomparative studies was 11 to 15.…”

“…Brake force was reported in four articles [30,39,60,64]. Upper extremity immobilization studies used driving abilities score, simulators, and standardized tracks [6,7,20,21]. The driving score reflected specific activities of driving such as steering and signaling [6].…”

“…Upper extremity immobilization studies used driving abilities score, simulators, and standardized tracks [6,7,20,21]. The driving score reflected specific activities of driving such as steering and signaling [6]. The driving simulators evaluated participants' ability to avoid hazards and collisions.…”

“…Driving simulators and standardized tracks showed that driving ability is impaired when patients wear a right or left scaphoid and Bennett's cast, above-or below-elbow immobilization, or a shoulder sling on the dominant arm [6,7,20,21] (Table 4). No articles that evaluated observerreported outcome measures after upper extremity surgery matched our search criteria.…”