Clinton Operation Called a Success

Former President Clinton underwent successful surgery Thursday to remove fluid and scar tissue that had built up around his lung, and was expected to make a full recovery, doctors said.

Clinton, 58, will remain in New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center for three to 10 days, and will have a recovery period of four to six weeks at home, surgeons said. He is expected to be walking today,) they said.

During the operation, which lasted about four hours, doctors removed a “rubbery-like plaque” 5 millimeters thick that had formed on Clinton’s lung and had reduced the lung’s function 25%, they said.

The condition was a rare complication from the former president’s quadruple heart bypass surgery at the same hospital six months earlier.

Clinton “is awake and he is resting comfortably,” Herbert Pardes, the hospital’s president and chief executive, said at a news conference. “Sen. [Hillary Rodham] Clinton and Chelsea are with him now and they are very pleased.”

Dr. Robert Kelly, the hospital’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, said the former president was was in good spirits and talked about his golf game as he was wheeled into the operating room.

“He was upset that it was raining in Florida the day before,” when Clinton had participated in a tournament with former President George H.W. Bush to raise money for tsunami relief, Kelly said.

Clinton “was anxious to get out again.”

He received general anesthesia for the operation, which began at 7 a.m., about two hours after he arrived at the hospital in upper Manhattan. He was accompanied by Secret Service agents, who conducted security sweeps of the halls and corridors, and were stationed in the operating room.

The former president’s doctors elected to perform the low-risk procedure, known as decortication, after Clinton complained recently about difficulty breathing and being winded after finishing his daily 4-mile cardiac walk near his home in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Although Clinton passed a subsequent stress test, doctors said an X-ray and other medical tests revealed a significant build-up of fluid and scar tissue that had caused the lower part of his left lung to collapse.

Dr. Craig Smith, the hospital’s chief of cardiology who performed Clinton’s Sept. 6 surgery, said the procedure on Thursday was rare for bypass patients. Smith said the condition occurred in less than 1% of the nearly 6,000 cases he has treated. He emphasized, however, that Clinton’s operation was not an emergency.

Dr. Joshua Sonett, who performed the surgery, said physicians drained fluid that had built up in Clinton’s chest cavity.

Sonett said they inserted a small camera known as a thorascope between Clinton’s ribs, hoping to identify the scar tissue that was pressing down on his lung, and to remove it with surgical scissors.

But the buildup of scar tissue was too great, Sonett said, and doctors had to partially open the former president’s chest, making an incision between his ribs, to peel away all of the tissue.

“His lung showed a large fluid compression that was compressing the left lower lobe, and 25% of his entire lung wasn’t working,” Sonett said.

“It was something we couldn’t handle” with the camera device.

When the tissue was extracted, he said, “the lung expanded and refilled the chest cavity. President Clinton’s lung was very healthy and we expect full recovery.”

The former president knew about this medical condition before he left on his recent trip to South Asia with Bush.

But doctors said it was not life-threatening and did not try to prevent Clinton from going.

Since undergoing bypass surgery, Clinton has led a hectic lifestyle, making stops during last year’s presidential campaign for Democratic candidate Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, and making appearances linked to the opening of Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.