Study: Patients should wait up to 12 weeks before driving after total shoulder arthroplasty

Patients should wait up to 12 weeks before getting behind the wheel after undergoing total shoulder arthroplasty, according to study results presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedics Surgeons Annual Meeting.

“At 12 weeks status post-anatomic or reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (TRSA) , patients showed improved driving performance, with a significant decrease in the number of collisions in the simulated driving course compared to preoperative and 2 weeks postoperative trials,” Garret Garofalo, BS, wrote in the abstract.

In the study, 28 patients who underwent anatomic or RTSA were placed in a driving simulator where total simulator collisions, off-road collisions, on-road collisions, center-line crosses and off-road excursions were recorded preoperatively, and at 2 weeks, 6 weeks and 12 weeks after surgery. Researchers measured VAS, Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) values, annual driving mileage and hours slept the previous night.

Collisions decreased from 6.2 preoperatively to 5.9 at 2 weeks postoperatively, 5.2 at 6 weeks from surgery and to 4.2 at final follow-up. The number of center-line crosses decreased from 20.6 preoperatively to 14.8 at final follow-up. Patients who drove less than 1,800 miles annually had more collisions preoperatively and at final follow-up as compared with patients who drove more than 8,700 miles per year.

“It is our recommendation, based on improvements in VAS scores for pain and SPADI scores … that patients refrain from driving for at least 6 weeks,” Garofalo and colleagues concluded. “The present study findings suggest that patients undergoing total shoulder replacement show improvement in driving performance with the mitigation of shoulder pain and discomfort.”

Reference:

Garofalo G. Paper #438. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting; March 11-15, 2014; New Orleans.

Disclosure: Garofalo has no relevant financial disclosures.