Safety to drive after common limb fractures.
Rees JL., Sharp RJ.
One hundred Orthopaedic Consultants in the UK were randomly selected and asked to complete a postal questionnaire indicating when they felt patients with treated, pain free, common limb fractures could return to driving. Seventy-two questionnaires were returned. Six were not completed leaving 66 completed questionnaires. Analysis revealed a clear mandate to allow or prevent driving in patients with certain treatment modalities and stages of union. In the lower limb there was majority agreement of suitability to drive in 61% of the 28 presented scenarios. Opinion was more divided for the upper limb, with only 43% of the scenarios having majority agreement. Our results show that while for some common limb fractures there is a clear body of opinion supporting safety to drive, for other common fractures opinion is less clear cut. This has important financial, medico-legal and legal implications that could be resolved by formal testing.