Royal Surrey County Hospital, Egerton Rd, Guildford GU2 7XX, Surrey, United Kingdom.
Foot Ankle Surg. 2010 Dec;16(4):170-3. doi: 10.1016/j.fas.2009.10.007. Epub 2009 Nov 25.
Driving is important in maintaining independence. Limb pain can significantly limit this ability. Automatic vehicles can restore independence to people with left lower or upper limb disability but those with right-sided pathology are disadvantaged in this respect. This is despite the fact that numerous centers across the UK specialize in modifying automatic cars such that they can be driven solely with the use of the left foot. The knowledge of this amongst patients and health professionals is lacking. In this study we aim to confirm this fact and discuss the legal and practical aspects of driving a modified car.
We used patients who had undergone right-sided ankle and hind foot fusions or ankle replacements, as we believed they would have had a long period of right-sided leg pain that may have affected their driving ability. A consecutive series was identified from operative records over a 2 year period and patients contacted by telephone.
We identified 33 patients, of these 22 were available for telephonic interview. The average duration of right leg disability was 7.5 years. All responders had seen at least two healthcare professionals but car modification had never been discussed at any stage. Only 3 were aware of such modifications and of these all had been informed by sources outside the health service.
The availability of right to left modification of automatic cars is not widely known by patients and healthcare professionals alike with potential benefits of this simple adjunct not being exploited. More needs to be done to generate awareness of its existence as it may have a significant impact on patient independence.
驾驶对于保持独立性非常重要。肢体疼痛会严重限制这种能力。自动驾驶汽车可以使左下肢或上肢残疾的人恢复独立性，但对于右侧有病理问题的人来说，他们在这方面处于不利地位。尽管英国许多中心专门从事改装自动驾驶汽车，以便仅使用左脚即可驾驶，但患者和卫生专业人员对此知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们旨在证实这一事实，并讨论改装汽车的法律和实际方面。
我们使用了接受过右侧踝关节和后足融合或踝关节置换术的患者，因为我们认为他们的右腿疼痛时间较长，可能会影响他们的驾驶能力。在两年的手术记录中确定了连续的患者系列，并通过电话联系了患者。
我们共确定了 33 名患者，其中 22 名可进行电话访谈。右腿残疾的平均时间为 7.5 年。所有应答者都至少看过两名医疗保健专业人员，但在任何阶段都从未讨论过汽车改装。只有 3 人了解这种改装，其中所有这些人都是从医疗服务之外的渠道得知的。
患者和医疗保健专业人员都不知道自动汽车的左右改装的可用性，因此未能利用这种简单的辅助手段的潜在好处。需要做更多的工作来提高对其存在的认识，因为它可能对患者的独立性产生重大影响。
