LONDON – Pope Francis was admitted to a hospital in Rome abdominal surgery on Wednesday afternoon after developing a painful hernia an operation in 2021 removing a significant portion of his colon, the Vatican said.
Here’s what we know about the operation and what possible complications doctors will be watching for in the 86-year-old pontiff.
WHAT TYPE OF OPERATION IS THE POPE?
Pope Francis is undergoing a laparotomy, an operation that opens the abdomen to reveal internal organs, and doctors planned to put a prosthesis in him while he was under general anesthesia.
Doctors unconnected to Pope’s care said hernias are a known complication after previous surgeries and typically only become a problem when patients develop a bulge in the abdomen and experience severe pain. The Vatican said Francis was in increasing pain.
dr Walter Longo, chief of colon and rectal surgery at Yale University School of Medicine, said the pope’s doctors are likely concerned that the hernia could mean Francis’s intestines are “pinched,” which could lead to serious bowel problems.
“If you’re older and not in the best of shape, you can get a hernia from the (surgical) incision,” he said. This can lead to bowel twisting, which cuts off the blood supply to the bowel and ultimately leads to gangrene if left untreated.
“You have to fix it, there’s no other way,” Longo said.
dr Manish Chand, a British colon surgeon, said the use of a mesh prosthesis should significantly reduce the likelihood that the Pope will need further colon surgery.
“The purpose of the mesh is to reinforce that area so that this problem doesn’t happen again in the future,” Chand said.
What other complications are possible?
Two years ago, Francis had 33 centimeters of his colon removed. He was hospitalized for bronchitis earlier this year and lost part of a lung decades ago.
Noting that patients over 80 are often more prone to complications after general anesthesia, doctors said the team treating the Pope at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital will monitor him for problems including a stroke, heart problems, kidney failure and pneumonia.
“When you operate on older people and they’re frail and fragile, they’re not as alert as they used to be,” Longo said. “But if he gets through the surgery and he’s fine, he should be fine.”
dr Robin Phillips, professor emeritus of bowel surgery at Imperial College London, pointed out that abdominal surgery can also affect lung function.
“I suspect they’re doing it now because they’re worried it’s going to get more complicated and could lead to emergency surgery, which is even more of a risk than leaving it alone or having surgery now,” Phillips said.
How long will it take for the Pope to recover?
At best, probably at least six weeks. Chand described the procedure as “simple” and said most patients are discharged from the hospital in about a week.
How long it will be before the Pope resumes his normal duties will depend on his doctors’ ability to manage his pain. The likelihood of recurrence is also highest within the first six weeks, Chand said.
Doctors said recovery time also depends on what they find during his surgery, noting that it may be necessary to remove more of his colon.
dr Father Ravi Kiran, director of colorectal surgery at Columbia University, said it was possible Pope’s intestines could have been damaged if the blood supply had been restricted. This may require removing another part of his colon.
“This then has implications for healing once the gut is rejoined,” Kiran said. He said it would take several days for Francis’ bowels to start working again and recover from the effects of the anesthesia.
Kiran recommended that the pope stick to a healthy diet high in fiber, but said he doesn’t expect any major changes in the pope’s lifestyle following Wednesday’s surgery. Others said they expected Francis to be able to resume his travel schedule within weeks.
“Any weakness in his abdominal wall…(,) shouldn’t be a problem as long as it’s safely fixed,” Kiran said. “I really wish the Pope a speedy recovery.”
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