there are still no medical reports and the Vatican avoids explaining what happened in the operating room

Medical reports are still missing, doctors are always silent, avoiding having to provide clarification as the version claims that the operation that was performed on Pope Francis on Sunday started with the laparoscopic technique but had to switch to the traditional system of scalpel incisions in the abdomen.

The operation has become more delicate in an 84-year-old patient who underwent three hours of general anesthesia.

This Tuesday there was new information from the Vatican spokesperson.

It’s concise. “His Holiness Pope Francis rested well during the night. This morning he had breakfast, read newspapers and got up to walk. The postoperative period is regular. Routine follow-up exams are good. “

One version adds that the Pope showed good humor, made jokes to nurses and doctors who assist him.

On Monday, it was reported that Bergoglio would stay in Gemelli Hospital for a week, “if there are no complications”.

What happened in the operating room

The versions on what what happened in the operating room on Sundays, almost all come from journalistic sources.

The newspaper “Il Messaggero” of Rome, was the first to report that laparoscopy, the ideal technique in these operations for elderly patients, had been replaced by the traditional use of the scalpel to open the patient’s abdomen, which lengthens the times of anesthesia and hospitalization.

With laparoscopy, surgeons work by making small holes to pass the tubes that are used for the operation. Minimizes the use of the scalpel and the moment of the intervention.

The announcement on Monday by the Vatican spokesperson that the operation had lasted three hours (a newspaper estimated that “almost five hours” were necessary) and that the Pope had to remain hospitalized for seven days, whereas before two or three days less were calculated it caused the first perplexities.

It was reported that the Pope had suffered a left hemicolectomyIn other words, the left part of the colon had been removed to eliminate the diverticula continually inflamed by the infections.

diverticula these are hernias, small bags that form in the walls of the colon, especially on the left side. They affect the majority of people over 60 and reach high levels in older people.

The main Italian newspaper, the “Corriere della Sera” interviewed the professor Francisco Corcione, considered one of the best lights in diverticulum operations.

The subject: the so-called “conversion of laparoscopy to “open” (open, in English). It occurs “when the surgeon who had programmed a minimally invasive procedure such as laparoscopy realizes that cannot continue with this technique and decides to go to traditional methods, using the opening of the abdomen instead of endoscopic instruments ”.

“On Sunday afternoon the program change it was necessary for Pope Francis ”, says the“ Corriere della Sera ”.

The experience of surgeons

Professor Corcione said that this unforeseen “depends in part on the experience of surgeons, but this is not the case with colleagues from the Gemelli hospital coordinated by Sergio Alfieri, who had to go through a scalpel after checking the ineffectiveness of the laparoscopic options ”.

Corcione is the president emeritus of the Italian Society of Surgery, professor at the University of Naples.

The surgeon answers the question of the other surprises in the operating room. “In general, what leads to the change to open surgery are the difficult bleeding check the presence of visceral adhesions, problems with anesthesia or complications such as the discovery of openings which cannot be resolved by laparoscopy ”.

One version argues that surgeon Alfieri and his collaborators met minor scars from another operation and they couldn’t insert the endoscopic tubes, so they decided to open the abdomen.

A clue to what happened can be found in the following question and Professor Corcione’s answer. The question is: “Do memberships depend only on previous operations of another nature?” We do not know if Pope Francis was operated in Argentina before becoming pontiff ”.

“Most adhesions depend on previous episodes of open surgery, but they can also be determined by other causes. It is up to the surgeon to avoid these obstacles delete them before proceeding with the ablation of the sigmoid and the descending colon ”, answers Professor Corcione.

The surgeon specifies that two operations out of ten started in laparoscopy they end with an open intervention. The percentage varies according to the experience of the team ”.

Vatican, correspondent

ap