Pope will undergo surgery for a hernia and is expected to stay in hospital

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis was due to undergo surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on June 7 to treat a hernia that had developed through an incision from a previous operation, the Vatican said.

The pope was to be placed under general anesthesia and undergo abdominal surgery involving “plastic surgery of the abdominal wall with prosthesis,” Vatican press office director Matteo Bruni said in a brief statement released shortly after the general audience. morning of the pope on June 7. .

He had to stay in the hospital for several days.

The operation, “accepted in recent days by the medical team assisting the Holy Father, has become necessary due to an incisional hernia” causing intestinal obstruction “recurrent, painful and worsening”, specifies the press release. An incisional hernia can occur at the site of an incision in the abdominal wall.

The pope briefly visited the Gemelli Hospital Geriatric Medical Center for a medical examination and tests on June 6. According to Italian news agency ANSA, he stayed there for around 40 minutes before returning to the Vatican.

Pope Francis had previously been hospitalized for 10 days in July 2021 to treat diverticulitis, a condition marked by inflammation of the swellings lining the intestine, and underwent surgery that removed part of his colon. In January 2023, Pope told The Associated Press that the bulges in his intestinal wall had returned.

The pope said he did not react well to the general anesthetic used during his colon surgery and said that reaction was part of the reason he refused to have surgery for torn knee ligaments . For more than a year, Pope Francis has used a wheelchair in many of his public events.

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

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