Early resumption of driving within 3 weeks following patient-specific instrumented total knee arthroplasty: an evaluation of 160 cases

Abstract

ObjectivesMost patients want to resume normal activities as soon as possible after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), with driving an integral aspect to re-establish social and recreational independence. This study aimed to determine when patients resumed driving after TKA.MethodsAll patients undergoing patient-specific instrumented (PSI) medial pivot TKA between January 2017 and April 2018 were included. Patients who did not drive were excluded. A detailed questionnaire was sent to patients 2 weeks after surgery to record their driving status. 50 patients were randomly selected to assess flexion at the hip, knee and ankle joints while seated in the driver’s seat of their own vehicle.Results160 patients (female=94 and male=66) with a mean age of 68 years (45–90 years) underwent a PSI TKA (left side [L]=75, right side [R]=85). 73% patients returned to driving within the first 3 weeks after surgery, of which 15 (10%) resumed driving within the first postoperative week, 52 (35%) in the second week and 41 (28%) in the third week. The median time to resume driving following surgery was 3 weeks for both operative sides, with IQR of 2.0 (L) and 1.0 (R).ConclusionA majority of patients resume driving within 3 weeks after undergoing a PSI TKA, regardless of operative side or transmission of vehicle.Level of evidenceIV

Driving after total knee and hip arthroplasty - an observational study from the perspective of rehabilitative orthopaedic therapy

“…When it comes to the brake reaction time a similar picture is painted: Marques et al [16] recorded 44 ± 19 days for the patients to reach their preoperative brake reaction time following a right-sided TKA and 20 ± 15 days following a left-sided TKA. Nizam et al [17], however, recorded a Median of 3 weeks following a TKA, regardless of side. Van der Velden et al [12] and Huang et al [18] saw a return to the preoperative brake reaction time 4 weeks following a TKA and was able to show an inverse correlation between brake reaction time and the "step-test" by Marmon et al [19].…”

“…The authors of this paper have focused on the more recent published works and were able to nd that there is a very large bandwidth of recommendations when to reuptake driving after TKA or THA, ranging from two days up to 8 weeks after surgery. [4,5,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] In Germany, in some cases the recommendation to restrain from driving after TKA or THA procedures is 12 weeks after surgery. We've decided to take the 12 weeks timeframe as the maximum amount of recovery time after a TKA or THA procedure, with no further complications, and set out to nd to what extent patients take said recommendations into account when returning to motor vehicle driving after surgery.…”

Surgical site, gender, and place of residence influence the time to resume driving after total joint arthroplasty

“…When it comes to the brake reaction time a similar picture is painted: Marques et al recorded 44 ± 19 days for the patients to reach their preoperative brake reaction time following a right-sided TKA and 20 ± 15 days following a left-sided TKA [ 17 ]. Nizam et al, however, recorded a Median of 3 weeks following a TKA, regardless of side [ 18 ]. Van der Velden et al and Huang et al saw a return to the preoperative brake reaction time 4 weeks following a TKA and was able to show an inverse correlation between brake reaction time and the “step-test” by Marmon et al [ 13 , 19 , 23 ].…”

Driving After Total Knee and Hip Arthroplasty - an Observational Study From the Perspective of Rehabilitative Orthopaedic Therapy

“…The authors of this paper have focused on the more recent published works and were able to nd that there is a very large bandwidth of recommendations when to reuptake driving after TKA or THA, ranging from two days up to 8 weeks after surgery. [4,5,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] In Germany, in some cases the recommendation to restrain from driving after TKA or THA procedures is up to 12 weeks after surgery.…”