Prosthetics and orthotics international
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Prosthet Orthot Int · Aug 2017
Effect of hip braces on brake response time: Repeated measures designed study.
The question whether or not a patient with a hip brace should drive a car is of obvious importance because the advice given to patients to resume driving is often anecdotal as few scientific data are available on this specific subject. ⋯ Based on our findings, it does not seem mandatory to recommend driving abstinence for patients wearing a hip orthosis. We suggest that our results be interpreted with caution, because (1) an underlying pathological hip condition needs to be considered, (2) the ability to drive a car safely is multifactorial and brake response time is only one component thereof and (3) brake response time measurements were performed only with healthy participants. Clinical relevance Hip braces are used in the context of joint-preserving and prosthetic surgery of the hip. Therefore, clinicians are confronted with the question whether to allow driving a car with the respective hip brace or not. Our data suggest that hip braces do not impair brake response time.