When do patients drive after minimally invasive anterior hip replacements? A single surgeon experience of 212 hip arthroplasties

Abstract

Introduction: Patients desire to return to normal activities soon after hip arthroplasty, with driving often being an integral component. We aimed to determine when patients resumed driving following a minimally invasive anterior bikini hip replacement and when they returned to work.Methodology: All consecutive patients undergoing elective primary bikini hip replacements between January 2017 and April 2018 were included in the study. Patients who did not drive were excluded. A detailed questionnaire was sent to patients 3–6 weeks after surgery to record their driving status. Fifty 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.Results: Altogether 212 anterior bikini total hip replacements (L = 102, R = 108 and 1 bilateral one stage) were performed in 198 patients (F = 129 and M = 69) with a mean age of 69 years. A total of 76% patients returned to driving within the first 3 weeks after surgery, of which 25 (14%) resumed driving within the first post-operative week, 71 (39%) in the second week and 42 (23%) in the third week. Among them, 98.4% stated they were confident when they first started driving and 90.66% stated they were more comfortable driving after surgery than before. Employed patients returned to work within 1–79 days (mean = 24 days).Conclusion: Surgeons may allow patients to resume driving within 1 week after anterior hip replacement and return to work within 3 weeks if they are medically fit and deemed safe.

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

“…In the rst group, roadworthiness is already reached two days following a minimally invasive THA (Quarashi et al [11]), a week following a regular THA (Batra et al [4]), two weeks following a regular THA (Van der Velden et al [12]), 3.7 weeks following a regular THA (Rondon et al [5]) and 6th + 7th weeks postsurgery in the present study. The results for TKA are similarly inconsistent: 4 weeks post-surgery (Van der Velden et al [12], 4.4 weeks post-surgery (Rondon et al [5]), 6 weeks post-surgery [Ellanti et al[13]), and in 6th + 7th weeks post-surgery in the present study.…”

“…In a number of studies [4,6,11,12,13,14] the operated side did not in uence the postoperative resumption of driving. Our results showcase a different picture: there was no trend in patients who had undergone a THA (p = 0.304), in patients who had undergone a TKA, however, there was a trend of patients with a right-side arthroplasty driving signi cantly later (p = 0.020).…”

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

“…Of 198 patients who underwent an anterior bikini total hip replacement in a 16-month period, 76% returned to driving within the first 3 weeks after surgery, with 14% resuming in the first postoperative week 17. Similarly, measurements of angles of flexion at the hip, knee and ankle during simulated acceleration and emergency braking suggested that ankle movements appeared to affect driving more than hip movements.…”

“…As demonstrated previously with patients undergoing THA, our questionnaire was designed considering safety as a priority and included practical aspects patients would consider before driving 17. The senior surgeon only allowed patients to drive after thorough postoperative assessment if the patient was deemed medically fit and confident.…”

“…A detailed questionnaire (online supplementary appendix 1) was sent to all patients who underwent a PSI TKA between January 2017 and April 2018, 3–6 weeks after their procedure, as previously described 17. All patients were reviewed 2 weeks postoperative and again at 6–8 weeks postoperative.…”