Hip replacement when can i drive

A: Usually you can resume driving after you are off your pain medication and feel strong enough and safe enough to drive. If surgery was performed on your left leg, assuming you don't drive a manual transmission vehicle you can start driving once off narcotic pain medication. If surgery was performed on your right leg, you can typically resume driving between weeks after surgery. A: Yes. You will have some degree of bruising after surgery but everyone is different.

Some will only experience redness around the incision. Others will have bruising down the entire leg. Both are considered normal and will typically resolve over days.

Q: When can I stop taking the blood thinner aspirin, coumadin, Xarelto, lovenox? Q: How long do I have to follow hip precautions for my hip replacement? A: 6 weeks. You can return to activities such as gardening, walking, dancing and even sports such as golf.

Some other activities that will help strengthen your limbs include swimming and riding a stationary bike. Avoid high impact activities, such as jumping or running. You need to remain under total hip precautions for about 12 weeks. Avoid crossing your legs as well.

Finally, our questionnaire has not been validated, although it was designed using practical and relevant questions that are easily reproducible for future research. Our findings demonstrate it is feasible and safe to resume driving within one week following a soft-tissue sparing anterior bikini hip replacement, irrespective of the side of surgery. Working patients returned to employment within 3 weeks post-operative, provided they were medically fit.

Patients with complex medical comorbidities and those taking narcotics should seek the advice of their treating surgeon before resuming driving or returning to work. A single surgeon experience of hip arthroplasties. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Published online Nov Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Received Jul 20; Accepted Sep This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Introduction: Patients desire to return to normal activities soon after hip arthroplasty, with driving often being an integral component.

Key words: Driving resumption, Direct anterior approach, Total hip arthroplasty, Enhanced recovery, Minimally invasive. Introduction The primary goals of total hip arthroplasties THAs are to relieve pain, improve quality of life and restore mobility [ 1 ], determined by the longevity of prosthesis [ 2 ] and early return to pre-morbid activities.

Methodology All consecutive patients who underwent elective soft-tissue sparing primary bikini anterior hip replacements [ 11 ] by a single surgeon in one institution between January and April were included.

Table 1 Patient demographics. Open in a separate window. Statistical analysis Ranges and means were calculated for all outcome measures using responses to the driving questionnaire distributed to patients.

Figure 1. Patient timelines for the resumption of driving following BHA. Table 2 Patient responses to driving questionnaire. Questions asked in questionnaire Yes No Walking aids used when resumed driving Figure 2. Demonstration of flexion angle measurements of hip, knee and ankle joints. Figure 3. Figure 4. Discussion Our study demonstrates that patients were able to resume driving several days after undergoing soft tissue sparing BHAs [ 11 ].

Conclusion Our findings demonstrate it is feasible and safe to resume driving within one week following a soft-tissue sparing anterior bikini hip replacement, irrespective of the side of surgery. Appendix 1 Driving after THA questionnaire. References 1. Orthop Rev Pavia 3 , e J Bone Joint Surg Br 70 , — Abbas G, Waheed A Resumption of car driving after total hip replacement.

This study showed that most patients were ready to return to driving four weeks after total hip replacement surgery. The researchers also found that patients under 70 years of age recovered sooner after their hip replacement surgery than older patients. This study was led by Geoffrey H. The research team worked with patients from three orthopedic surgeons at Hospital for Special Surgery. These patients were tested to record their braking reaction times using a fully interactive driving simulator that was provided by the American Automobile Association.