Hip replacement when can you drive

Recovery from hip replacement surgery is a gradual process which requires the patient to take certain precautions to ensure a full recovery.

At OrthoBethesda, we encourage our patients to work with physical therapists after their hip replacement to ensure the recovery process is a fast, comfortable and pleasurable experience.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about recovery from a hip replacement. Patients heal from surgery at different speeds.

Then, you can use a cane outdoors and walk without any support when you are indoors. For almost all the cases, it takes about four to six weeks before an individual is said to be recovered from a hip replacement procedure although total healing time takes about six months. During the first 8 to 10 weeks after the hip replacement surgery the patient is good enough to walk without assistance and participate in some of the activities of daily living except heavy lifting, bending, and twisting.

When it comes to driving, it involves perfect reaction time and it is seen that immediately after a hip replacement surgery patients have a decreased reaction time and thus are said to be unfit for driving. This reaction time required during driving gradually increases over time and it takes usually a couple of months after procedure when the patient should be able to drive. This article gives an approximate time frame as to when can an individual go back to driving after a hip replacement surgery.

As of now, physicians recommend at least six to eight weeks before an individual can return back to driving after a hip replacement procedure. However, a recent research conducted on patients have found that younger people who are in the age range of years who have had hip replacements can return to driving approximately two weeks earlier than this. Driving after hip replacement surgery was safe weeks sooner than previously thought dailyRX.

Need Help Finding a Physician? Online request form. Media Contacts. Social Media Contacts. Patients used the right foot for the gas and brake. Patients ranged in age from 34 to 85 years. The authors reported a general pattern of worse reaction times for everyone one week after the operation. One year after the operation women had better reaction times than men. This was true even though men had faster times before the THR.