Total Joint Replacement – Airline Travel Without a Joint ID Card

When flying today security is tighter then ever, I think we can all agree. Getting through security can be time consuming but it is a necessary requirement due to the world we live in. When you get a joint replaced like a hip, knee or shoulder, you will have questions regarding whether a joint ID card is needed to travel with? Depending on who you ask you will get several different responses from you do not need one to you must have it. I suspect to be on the safe side, it may be prudent to carry one however, after flying around the world I have yet had to produce or have been asked to provide an ID card regarding my joint replacement.

Security today at all domestic or International airports understand that a card indicating you have had a joint replaced can be simply purchased over the internet for a small fee. Anyone can do it therefore, an individual that wanted to try and slip something through will have to produce more then just a card indicating they have a metal prosthesis in their hip or knee.

The drill goes something like this, you enter the metal detectors even if you have advised them it will go off.

Once it goes off they immediately take you to the side and then have either a male or female depending on your sex check you by waving a wand over your body. You get patted down then presto you are finished.

I have yet had any great difficulty going through security with a knee replaced. You are not asked to produce the scar if you wear long pants. You get held up only for several minutes.

Therefore, you really do not need to ask your surgeon to give you an ID card. Some may still do it, some have stopped altogether. If you want to carry a card as some sort of feeling of initiation into the joint replacement fraternity you can but, you will not be asked to produce it in today’s age of technology.