Driving Guidelines and Restrictions in Patients With a History of Cardiac Arrhythmias, Syncope,or Implantable Devices

Acceptable Risk of Sudden Incapacitation Among Safety Critical Transportation Workers: A Comprehensive Synthesis

OBJECTIVE

Identify a risk threshold for sudden incapacitation for safety critical positions in transportation industries supporting medical fitness for duty standards.

METHODS

Systematic literature searches were performed examining acceptable risk criteria for medically related incapacitation using PubMed Central and Google Scholar databases. Websites for professional societies and national and international governmental agencies were also accessed. Article abstracts were reviewed and exhaustive searches were performed.

RESULTS

International regulatory bodies have adopted definitions of acceptable risk typically with a threshold of 1% to 2% absolute risk of sudden incapacitation per annum. Several "risk-of-harm" models have been proposed that incorporate factors modulating an absolute risk constant derived from epidemiological studies.

CONCLUSION

A 1% absolute annual risk of sudden incapacitation should be adopted as the threshold for determining medical fitness for duty among employees in safety critical positions in transportation industries.

Driving restrictions for patients with reflex syncope

Reflex syncope is the most common form of syncope that occurs while driving. The 2014 revision of Japanese Road Traffic Laws placed stricter driving restrictions, along with some associated legal penalties, on individuals with recurrent syncope. "Recurrent syncope" is defined as the occurrence of more than two episodes of syncope over a period of 5 years. No restrictions are recommended for private drivers unless they experience syncope without a reliable prodrome while driving or sitting. For commercial drivers, a driving restriction is recommended unless the efficacy of treatment can be confirmed. The "risk of harm" (RH) to other road users appears to be particularly high when commercial driving is involved. The RH formula is calculated using the time of driving, the type of vehicle driven, the risk of sudden cardiac incapacitation, and the probability of a fatal or injury-producing accident. Reducing the driving time or driving a lighter vehicle can reduce the RH. Physicians should talk to their patients about driving and advise their high-risk patients to refrain from driving.

Inappropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator shocks-incidence, effect, and implications for driver licensing

Purpose

Patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) have an ongoing risk of sudden incapacitation that may cause traffic accidents. However, there are limited data on the magnitude of this risk after inappropriate ICD therapies. We studied the rate of syncope associated with inappropriate ICD therapies to provide a scientific basis for formulating driving restrictions.

Methods

Inappropriate ICD therapy event data between 1997 and 2014 from 50 Japanese institutions were analyzed retrospectively. The annual risk of harm (RH) to others posed by a driver with an ICD was calculated for private driving habits. We used a commonly employed annual RH to others of 5 in 100,000 (0.005%) as an acceptable risk threshold.

Results

Of the 4089 patients, 772 inappropriate ICD therapies occurred in 417 patients (age 61 ± 15 years, 74% male, and 65% secondary prevention). Patients experiencing inappropriate therapies had a mean number of 1.8 ± 1.5 therapy episodes during a median follow-up period of 3.9 years. No significant differences were found in the age, sex, or number of inappropriate therapies between patients receiving ICDs for primary or secondary prevention. Only three patients (0.7%) experienced syncope associated with inappropriate therapies. The maximum annual RH to others after the first therapy in primary and secondary prevention patients was calculated to be 0.11 in 100,000 and 0.12 in 100,000, respectively.

Conclusions

We found that the annual RH from driving was far below the commonly cited acceptable risk threshold. Our data provide useful information to supplement current recommendations on driving restrictions in ICD patients with private driving habits.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10840-017-0272-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy With and Without Defibrillator in a Commercial Truck Driver with Ischemic Cardiomyopathy and New York Heart Association Class III Heart Failure

Commercial drivers warrant tighter restrictions to their driving privileges than private drivers. Patients with cardiac disease who are at risk of consciousness-impairing arrhythmias are not allowed to drive commercially. Patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction and/or heart failure symptoms are permanently disqualified from commercial driving. A biventricular pacemaker without defibrillator can improve symptoms and mortality in selected patients with heart failure. Biventricular pacing may have antiarrhythmic effects that may reduce the added benefit of a defibrillator. Motor vehicle collisions resulting from arrhythmic events are infrequent. The interests of public safety must outweigh individual liberties when driving safety is in question.