Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases and their complications are a principal cause for morbidity and mortality worldwide. There is an increase among the elderly population going through open heart surgery with a valid driving license. Nevertheless, the hospitalization period is relatively short, with a five day average. Currently, there are no guidelines and regulations regarding when is it safe to return driving following open heart surgery.

Objectives: To test the ability of patients post open heart surgery for the optimal time interval after which driving will be considered as safe.

Methods: Patients following heart surgery, completed a test battery at either two week (N=50) or three months post-surgery (N=90). Study participants, filled out questionnaires regarding emotional state, quality of life (SF-36), driving history and habits. In addition participants completed a driving simulation on STISM simulator. Simulation score was calculated according to the severity of a number of traffic violations normalized to the participant age.

Results: the average age of the study participants was 63.94 (SD=9.58) years. Three months post-surgery, patients presented significant improvement in the ability to carry out physical activities (p<0.001), were in an improved emotional state (p<0.05), and displayed less pain (p<0.001). Regarding their driving ability patients exhibited improved handling of vehicle controls (p=0.01) and safer driving (p=0.04), compared to two weeks post-surgery.

Conclusions: The purpose of this study was to form driving safety guidelines for patients following open heart surgery, regarding when is it safe to start driving again. Our findings show for the first time that it is safer to return driving after three months and not after two weeks. We suggest that Medical guidelines post open heart surgery, should include a recommendation of returning to drive only after three months. Future randomized trials should confirm the results of this study.