Which Patients Are Fit to Drive After a Stroke?

The pertinent issue may be not which patients are likely to fail a road test, but rather who should take the test in the first place.

What are the best clinical predictors of passing a road test after a stroke? To find out, investigators conducted a literature search for English language reports on outcome of a pass/fail road test after a stroke. The researchers identified 30 such studies, 27 of which provided sufficient data to be included in a meta-analysis. “Fitness-to-drive” data were analyzed for 1728 people; all had been active drivers before they had their strokes.

Of 54 measures of physical, visual, and cognitive function that were evaluated, only 5 (Cube Copy, Stroke Drivers Screening Assessment, Road Sign Recognition, the Compass task, and Trail Making Test part B) were clinically relevant (i.e., met the effect-size cutoff of >0.8) and had statistically significa…

Reviewing Author

Germaine L. Odenheimer, MD

Which Patients Are Fit to Drive After a Stroke?

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Reviewing Author