Driving and patients with brain tumours: a postal survey of neurosurgeons, neurologists and radiation oncologists

This study was aimed at evaluating the consistency of driving advice given by treating clinicians to patients diagnosed with brain tumours. Secondary aims include assessing the awareness of current driving guidelines and whether or not there was a need for more specific guidelines in this group of patients. This was undertaken utilizing a scenario-based postal survey. The results show an overall poor consistency in the answers provided for each case scenario. 73.1 % respondents were not aware of any current driving guidelines. Of those who were aware of driving guidelines, 67.7% wanted more specific guidelines to be developed. Possible explanations for this are a lack of awareness of the existence of any driving guidelines and a lack of objective criteria in the current driving guidelines. The authors recommend that the current driving guidelines be comprehensively distributed to clinicians who treat patients with brain tumours, as well as forming a multi-disciplinary working party to develop more specific and objective driving guidelines. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.