"When can I drive again?"

A REVIEW OF THE CURRENT LITERATURE ON THE RETURN TO DRIVING AFTER INJURY OR LOWER LIMB ARTHROPLASTY
The question "when can I drive again?" is a challenging one for the surgeon. Orthopaedic surgeons usually combine their experience, their knowledge and the radiographic information in order to advise a patient about returning to driving. This subject always places the surgeon in a dilemma, in the knowledge that, although no cases have been reported in Great Britain of doctors being sued because they advised patients that they could drive, there have nevertheless been court cases against doctors whose advice to patients was not to drive. This subject therefore has socio-economic and legal implications. At the same time, the uncertainty surrounding the question sometimes leads patients to start driving too early, or to delay it longer than would be necessary.
An article published in the journal “The Bone And Joint Surgery” brings together a good deal of information from different sources on this subject. Information is set out from orthopaedic surgeons, from insurance companies and from the police. The article contains a wide-ranging discussion of all this information and of whether or not guidelines exist.
It appears from this article that no authority provides enough evidence to determine a patient's fitness to drive after an operation on the lower limb. As a result, many patients drive much later than would be necessary, or return to driving too early. There appears to be a pressing need for guidelines to be established, so that responsibility for the return to driving does not rest with the surgeon or with the patient alone.