When Can You Drive After Rotator Cuff Surgery and Get Back in the Work Truck?

The story below is a composite of real experiences; details changed.

Ray stands in his driveway at 7 a.m., coffee in his left hand. His right arm is strapped to his belly in a sling.

He’s 46, a service electrician. Three weeks ago, a surgeon sewed a torn tendon back onto his right shoulder.

The company pickup sits at the curb. It’s an automatic. He’s done the math: left hand on the wheel, right arm tucked in. How hard can it be?

His phone buzzes. Dispatch: “Can you at least drive to the shop and run the board?”

His wife drove him to his follow-up. She can’t drive him to work every day.

Here’s what the sling means for driving, what the few driving studies found, and a check to run before your first trip.

The short answer: the sling comes first

AAOS says you’ll most likely use a sling and avoid using the arm for the first 4 to 6 weeks. How long depends on the tear, your tissue and the repair. (AAOS OrthoInfo)

The UK hospital leaflets we read tie driving to that sling. One NHS hospital says don’t try until after six weeks, and after the sling is off entirely. (University Hospital Southampton)

Another says you won’t drive for at least 6 weeks, and normally start between 6 and 12. (Royal Berkshire NHS, 2025) A third gives 8 to 12 weeks, once you can control the vehicle and do an emergency stop. (NHS Lothian, 2025)

A US surgery department is less fixed. It says the decision rests on your comfort driving “essentially one-handed.” But it says to wait at least until your first post-op visit with your surgeon. (WashU Medicine Orthopedics)

The same page warns that if you crash or get pulled over in a sling, authorities may consider it driving while impaired. (WashU Medicine Orthopedics)

Two UK leaflets call driving in a sling illegal there. (Royal Berkshire NHS, 2025; NHS Lothian, 2025) A 2022 US study says driving with a sling has no legal ramifications in the United States. (Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2022) Legal isn’t the same as safe.

A 2013 literature review in the AAOS journal said that, at the time, there were no laws, and no well-established insurance or medical guidelines, on when it’s safe to drive after bone and joint surgery. (AAOS via EurekAlert, 2013)

The calendar is a guess. The sling is the first gate, and your surgeon holds the key.

What the driving studies found

There isn’t much research, and it points two ways.

In a 2015 simulator study, 21 healthy volunteers drove with and without a sling on their dominant, driving arm. They had 36 collisions in all without the sling, and 73 with it. That’s about 1.7 each versus 3.7. (Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 2015)

A 2022 study took real patients out on real roads. Twenty-seven people, average age about 59, drove before a cuff repair and at 2, 4, 6 and 12 weeks after, with a safety monitor on board. They wore their slings at the 2- and 4-week drives. (Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2022)

From week 2, they generally braked less aggressively and steered more smoothly. The authors reported no clinically important hit to driving fitness as early as 2 weeks. None were taking narcotics on any drive. (Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2022)

But read the fine print. There was no emergency maneuver. No stick shifts. Nearly 9 in 10 were right-handed. (Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2022)

What did people actually do? A survey of 54 patients 4 months after a cuff repair found they went back to driving anywhere from the same day to 4 months. A third of those back behind the wheel reported driving in the sling. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances, 2015; HCPLive, 2015)

Pain mattered more than the date. Drivers with pain were more likely to feel unsafe and to report trouble handling the vehicle. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances, 2015) A news report on the study put that at 3.7 times as likely, and said feeling safe didn’t track with time since surgery. (HCPLive, 2015)

A 2025 records review gave its findings in its title: 23%, 70% and 99% back to driving at 1, 2 and 6 months. (Journal of Experimental Orthopaedics, 2025)

Plenty of people drive early. That’s not proof it’s safe for you, and no study tested a panic stop in a sling.

Right shoulder, left shoulder, stick shift

The road study included 14 right shoulders and 13 left. The authors said it may not apply to left-handed people, and it didn’t test manual transmissions, which ask more of the arms. (Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 2022)

A follow-up look at that data found workarounds. People used the good hand for the turn signal or the shifter. One-handed steering was more common in the sling. (Virginia Tech thesis, 2023)

No study we found tested a stick shift in a sling.

Ray’s truck is an automatic. But his repair is on the arm he shifts and steers with, and he’s right-handed.

Left or right, a sling means one arm on the wheel. Talk to your surgeon before you assume either side is the easy one.

Pain pills and the wheel

MedlinePlus is plain: don’t drive if you’re taking narcotic pain medicine like codeine, hydrocodone or oxycodone. (MedlinePlus, 2024)

The FDA says opioids and muscle relaxants can cause drowsiness or slowed, uncoordinated movement. For some, the effects can last for hours, even into the next day. (FDA, 2024)

Driving impaired by any substance, legal or illegal, is against the law in all 50 states. (NHTSA)

Ray takes a pain pill at night so he can sleep. That alone keeps him out of the truck the next morning until he asks his pharmacist how long it lasts.

Still on narcotic pain pills? The truck stays parked.

The work truck: insurance, dispatch and a note

One NHS leaflet says it’s wise to talk with your insurance company before driving again. (Sherwood Forest Hospitals, 2025)

A US orthopedic surgeon who co-wrote the 2013 review said insurers and police treat fitness to drive as the driver’s responsibility alone. There’s no such thing as “clearance” from a surgeon, he added. (MedicalResearch.com, 2013)

So a note records your surgeon’s view. It doesn’t lift the decision off you, and rules can vary by state, insurer and employer.

If dispatch, HR or a fleet manager wants a note, ask your surgeon to put the driving advice in writing. The five questions to ask before you leave can help.

Driving to the shop isn’t the same as working. One hospital says jobs with heavy lifting often need at least three to four months off. (University Hospital Southampton) For timing by job, read going back to work after rotator cuff surgery.

The decision stays in the driver’s seat.

Before your first drive

Earn the first drive in the driveway, not on the highway.

When not to wait

Back in the driveway

Ray doesn’t text dispatch a yes. He sends a plan.

His wife drives him to the shop three mornings a week so he can run the board. He calls his insurer, and he stops the night pill.

At his 6-week visit, the sling comes off. He asks his surgeon to write down the driving advice.

His first trip is a Sunday loop to the hardware store, his wife in the passenger seat. Both hands on the wheel.

Worried about the paycheck in the meantime? Read how to plan for time away from work. Can’t sleep in the sling? See how to sleep after rotator cuff surgery.

Your next step: tonight, text your boss a plan, not a date: “Driving once the sling is off, my surgeon agrees, and I pass a parking-lot check.”

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Ray is a composite, drawn from the kinds of stories tradespeople describe after rotator cuff surgery. The details are illustrative.