It is Titanium- non-ferrous, so it will not set off any alarms.

If you are going to need a wheelchair, they swab your hands for explosive residue. Don’t strike any matches or go to the gun range for a couple of days before the trip. A kitchen match will light up their machine like a pin-ball machine, and you will be sure of extra special attention.

Basically, airport metal detectors are radio transmitters. One side transmits radio waves which then travel to detectors on the opposite side. The radio waves cannot pass through metal and are bounced off. The detectors then register non-transmitted waves, which causes the alarm to ring.

In the case of metal implants, it is thought that they should not set off the alarms, however it all depends on the settings of the machine. They have to reach a balance, as setting it too high causes every button and zipper to set off the alarms. Too low and a gun could get through.

In my experiences when traveling, my sisters’ back rods set off the detectors every-time. My mothers and grandmothers bilateral knee replacements almost always do, and my fathers single knee replacement does about a third of the time. Basically, if you set off the machine, the will hand screen you, which might be a “wanding” or possibly a hand search.

Depending on the airport they might have a full body scanner which, although it supposedly gives the screener a full view of your body, would also show the implants in the back.

All-in-all it cannot hurt to have a letter from your doctor, just so that you can show the screens that you actually did have surgery.

A letter from the doctor is meaningless, because you could have rods in your back AND a gun. They are not mutually exclusive.

Prepare to be patted down or wanded every time you go through security. It’s not a big deal.