March 31, 2022
1 minute reading
Source / Disclosures
Posted by:
Tigi A et al. Paper 375. Presented at: Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. 22-26 March 2022; Chicago.
Disclosures: Apel reported no relevant financial disclosures.
CHICAGO – Results presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons show that rotator cuff repair had no clinically significant negative impact on driving fitness.
Peter J. Abel, MD, He and colleagues used a fitted vehicle to obtain driving motility and behavioral data among 21 patients before rotator cuff repair and after surgery at 2, 4, 6 and 12 weeks. The researchers assessed parking, left and right turns, straight lanes, surrendering to oncoming traffic, integrating highways, U-turns, and traffic lanes, as well as hand position on the steering wheel, turn signal activation, and overhead visor use.
Peter J. Appel
“We chose to look at this through a non-inferiority analysis to determine whether or not a patient’s fitness to drive is not inferior to their preoperative condition,” Abel said in his presentation.
The results showed that driving after surgery at two weeks was not inferior to driving before surgery on all kinetic measures.
“Interestingly, we observed adaptive behaviour,” Abel said. “For example, for hand use, all of these patients drove with a sling, so if they had a left-sided rotator cuff tear, they used their left hand less. If they had a right-sided rotator cuff tear, they used their right hand less. They also changed the position of the hand position on the steering wheel for maneuverability.”
However, Abel noted that patients perceived themselves as having a lower level of physical fitness early in their rehabilitation.
“[For] Their overall perception of their leadership performance, Abel said, is that they believe they have performed worse earlier, but our data showed otherwise.
