Pope spends first night time in hospital after surgical procedure to take away intestinal scar tissue, restore hernia

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis awoke Thursday after a very good first night time within the hospital following a three-hour operation to take away intestinal scar tissue and restore a hernia in his belly wall, issues that developed following earlier surgical procedures.

“The night went well,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated in an announcement early Thursday, including additional updates could be launched later.

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, director of belly and endocrine sciences at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, stated Wednesday’s operation was profitable and there have been no issues or different pathologies found. Alfieri, who additionally eliminated a part of Francis’ colon in 2021, instructed a night press convention that the pope was awake, alert and even joking.

“When will we do the third one?” he quoted Francis as saying.

The pontiff was anticipated to stay within the tenth ground papal suite at Gemelli for a number of days, and all papal audiences had been canceled by way of June 18. The Vatican was anticipated to supply a medical replace later Thursday.

The operation was scheduled after Francis had complained about growing bouts of ache and intestinal blockages. After going to Gemelli on Tuesday for checks, Francis was admitted Wednesday following his common viewers and underwent the process a short while later.

The surgical procedure was doubtless scheduled now to present Francis loads of time to get better earlier than embarking on deliberate journey later this summer season: an Aug. 2-6 journey to Portugal for World Youth Day, and an Aug. 31-Sept. 4 journey to Mongolia.

During the operation, medical doctors eliminated adhesions, or inside scarring, on the gut that had prompted a partial blockage. Alfieri revealed that along with the 2021 colon surgical procedure, Francis had undergone earlier belly surgical procedures someday earlier than 2013 in his native Argentina, which had additionally prompted scarring.

To restore the hernia that had shaped over a earlier scar, a prosthetic mesh was positioned within the belly wall, Alfieri stated. He added that the pope was affected by no different pathologies, that the tissue eliminated was benign and that after he recovers, he must be positive.

A feared protrusion, or bulging of the gut by way of the hernia tear, was apparently not discovered.

“It appears they operated on him in a timely fashion with no compromise to his intestine,” stated Dr. Walter Longo, chief of colon and rectal surgical procedure at Yale University School of Medicine, who didn’t take part within the surgical procedure and commented after consulting the Vatican assertion on the process.

Francis remained answerable for the Vatican and the 1.3-billion sturdy Catholic Church, even whereas unconscious and within the hospital, in response to canon legislation.

In July 2021, Francis spent 10 days at Gemelli to take away 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his giant gut. In an interview with The Associated Press in January, Francis stated the diverticulosis, or bulges in his intestinal wall, that prompted that surgical procedure had returned.

After that surgical procedure, Francis lamented that he hadn’t responded effectively to the final anesthetic. That response partly defined his refusal to have surgical procedure to restore strained knee ligaments which have compelled him to make use of a wheelchair and walker for over a 12 months.

However, Alfieri stated Francis had no clinically adversarial reactions to the anesthesia in 2021 or Wednesday.

“Clearly no one likes to be operated on and put to sleep because the moment we’re put under, we lose consciousness,” he stated. “But there was no physiological problem two years ago or today.”

Dr. Manish Chand, a professor of surgical procedure at University College London who focuses on colorectal surgical procedure, stated the best difficulty going ahead might be ache administration and ensuring the wound heals correctly.