What Precautions Should I Take When Going Through Airport Scanners With A Pacemaker?

— -- Question: What precautions should patients with pacemakers take when going through airport scanners or other security scanners?

Answer: Well, it's important to remember that when you go through a security scanner, it's scanning for metal objects on your body. And pacemakers and defibrillators are metal objects. And so, they can easily trigger the scanner to go off.

So, it's important to have identification and all companies that make pacemakers give identification cards to say that you have a device. And then you can be hand-evaluated with a hand scanner to make sure there is no any other metal on your body. So, it's important to recognize that this can trigger the scanner to go off.

The other issue is that some devices will respond to electrical signals in the scanner so that if you're standing in the scanner for a long period of time, it may interfere temporarily with the function of the device. And so, it's important to walk briskly through the scanner. Otherwise, there really shouldn't be any other problems.