To assess when patients resumed driving after fast-track hip and knee arthroplasty and identify factors associated with resumption later than 6 weeks.
Approach:
Design and setting: Single-center prospective cohort study at Odense University Hospital, Denmark, from September 2022 to July 2023.
Participants: Of 408 questionnaire recipients, 357 responded; after excluding 51 without a driver's license, 306 patients were analyzed: 134 after THA, 103 after TKA, and 69 after mUKA.
Assessment: Questionnaires sent 3–12 months after discharge assessed self-reported time to driving resumption, factors associated with delay beyond 6 weeks, and postoperative traffic incidents.
Key Findings:
Median time to driving resumption was 4 weeks after mUKA and 6 weeks after THA or TKA.
Median resumption was 4 weeks after left-sided surgery and 6 weeks after right-sided surgery.
By 6 weeks, 77% of THA, 65% of TKA, and 80% of mUKA patients had resumed driving.
Female patients had 2.8 times the odds of delayed resumption beyond 6 weeks compared with male patients. Other listed factors were not statistically significantly associated with delay in adjusted analysis.
Two patients (0.7%) reported a postoperative automobile traffic incident.
Interpretation:
The authors stated that driving recommendations may need to reflect individual functional recovery rather than a fixed interval. They noted that driving performance was not objectively assessed, so the safety of earlier resumption remains uncertain.
Limitations:
Driving resumption was self-reported 3–12 months after discharge, creating potential recall bias.
Preoperative driving habits and experience were insufficiently documented.
Small subgroups and multiple variables increased uncertainty in analyses of delayed driving.
Unmeasured group differences and selection bias could have affected results; exclusion of patients without access to the required digital mailbox may limit generalizability.
Existing expectations of a 6-week recovery period may have influenced patients' decisions.
Conclusion:
The study found earlier self-reported driving resumption after mUKA and left-sided surgery, but did not objectively establish the safety of earlier driving.
Systematic review found robotic-assisted total hip arthroplasty improved implant positioning precision without demonstrating better patient-reported outcomes or lower complication rates than conventional surgery.
