In addition to the director of the Press Office of the Holy See, Dr. Sergio Alfieri reveals details of the operation
News from the Vatican
“The Pope is awake and has already played,” so began the press conference with the doctor who operated on Francisco, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, Director of the Department of Medical and Surgical Abdominal Sciences and EndrocinoMetabolic at Gemelli Hospital in Rome.
Next to the head of the Press Office of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, the doctor read the following statement:
“This afternoon, at the Gemelli Polyclinic, the Holy Father underwent a planned operation for a *laparocele that was pinched due to the scar resulting from operations to correct the problem carried out in previous years.
This laparocele had for some months left the Holy Father suffering from an aggravated, painful semiintestinal obstruction syndrome.
During the operation, strong adhesions between some bowel loops with partial obstruction in the parietal peritoneum were noted, causing the above symptomatology.
So we loosened the adhesions (internal scars) and completely removed the entire obstruction. The fracture defect was then repaired by plastic surgery on the abdominal wall using a prosthetic mesh.
The operation and general anesthesia were uneventful. The Holy Father responded well to the operation.”
alert and aware
Vigilant and attentive, Pope Francis is grateful for the myriad messages of affection and prayer that have been sent to him. The Pope’s “joke” was to ask when the third operation would be performed.
* Laparocele is the term for an incisional hernia. This happens when patients develop a hernia at the site of the scar after abdominal surgery. A hernia is a bulge, resembling a type of lump, that results from the partial or complete protrusion of an organ or tissue through an opening that has been opened in a place where it shouldn’t be. This happens due to a malformation or weakening of the layers that cover the organ, such as the abdominal muscles.