He Undergoes Exam to Check on July Cancer Surgery : Has Made Full Recovery, President Says

The White House announced Friday that President Reagan had undergone a thorough physical examination and has made a “100% complete recovery” from his surgery last July for intestinal cancer.

The President, accompanied by his wife, Nancy, flew by helicopter Friday afternoon to Bethesda Naval Medical Center outside Washington for what was described as a routine post-operative examination. Afterward, he traveled on to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., for the weekend.

Tests Not Specified

White House spokesmen refused to specify what tests were performed other than a general mention of X-rays and blood tests. They said that a report would be made public next week after the laboratory results are analyzed.

Reagan, emerging 51 minutes after he entered the hospital for the exam, declared himself fully recovered from his operation. A statement issued about two hours later by the White House press office used the same words Reagan had chosen in reporting the doctors’ assessment of his condition.

“The doctors said the President has experienced a ‘100% complete recovery’ from surgery,” the statement said. “They told the President they are ‘ecstatic’ with his condition, and the results of all of the post-operative tests were normal.”

In the wake of his intestinal surgery, the President had a small skin cancer removed from his nose on July 30.

The trip back to the hospital, where a cancerous polyp had been removed from his colon on July 13, had been expected for weeks but was not announced until Wednesday.

As the latest examination neared, the White House took a far more careful approach than it had in July, when Reagan went to the hospital for a checkup and an intestinal polyp was discovered. The polyp, along with 18 inches of Reagan’s colon, was removed the next day and was found to be malignant.

Vague About Details

Spokesmen refused not only to specify the tests that were administered Friday but remained vague about the extent of the details that would be made available next week.

White House sources have said that the decidedly more cautious approach to discussing Reagan’s health was a consequence of Mrs. Reagan’s unhappiness over reporters’ pressing for details during the President’s intestinal surgery and the subsequent skin cancer episode.

The examination Friday was conducted by Drs. Dale Oller, Edward Cattau and T. Burton Smith.