The nature of your surgery and the speed of your recovery will determine the duration of time after surgery when you should not drive.
You should not drive or operate any machinery for at least 24 hours after any general anaesthetic. If you are having “Day Surgery”, under no circumstances will you be allowed to drive yourself home following surgery.
In general, patients undergoing keyhole (laparoscopic) surgery will be able to return to driving earlier than patients undergoing open surgery (laparotomy). A rough “rule of thumb” is that most patients may return to driving when they are freely mobile without requiring pain-relief medications, and can safely depress the foot pedal of the car’s brakes without causing any pain. This depends on the nature of the surgery as well as an individual’s recovery process. For keyhole surgery, this may usually be about 2 weeks, and for open surgery, it may be up to 4-6 weeks. In any case, individual car insurance policy, and it is always essential to check with your insurance company to clarify the specific restrictions of your insurance policy.
For more specific instructions following your surgery, please discuss this with Dr Tang.
