Dravecky Surgery: Result Is Withheld : Baseball: A statement on the former pitcher’s five-hour operation expected to be made today.

Dave Dravecky underwent surgery Tuesday, but there was no indication on whether the former pitcher’s left arm was amputated.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center said a statement on Dravecky’s surgery will be made today, and made no other comment. The San Francisco Giants, Dravecky’s former team, said it did not know the results of the operation.

It was announced last week that Dravecky’s arm, in which cancer was diagnosed in 1988, would be amputated at the shoulder. But on Monday, his agent, Sealy Yates, said it was uncertain whether the amputation would take place.

“The doctor said he would not know until he got to the hospital,” Yates said. “Amputation is very likely, but there is a slight possibility that it won’t happen.”

The surgery, the fourth on Dravecky’s arm since the cancer was detected, lasted more than five hours and was performed by Dr. Murray Brennan, chairman of the Dept. of Surgery at the hospital.

Yates was unavailable for comment after the surgery ended.

Dravecky, in a statement last week, said he was resigned to having the arm amputated.

“In as much as there is a certain amount of fear involved in losing my arm, reflecting upon my past eight or nine months, it is a sense of almost relief that I feel,” Dravecky said. “The pain and discomfort of that time is now about to end and I look forward to once again doing the things I enjoy.”

“I want to thank all of the many people across the country who have graciously expressed their concern for me and my family,” Dravecky said in a statement. “As we face this latest trauma in my life . . . I am as prepared as one can be to face the loss of my arm.”

Dravecky is expected to remain hospitalized 10 to 14 days, then recuperate at home for 10 days before returning to Sloan-Kettering for examination.

Dravecky, 35, underwent his first operation Oct. 7, 1988, after a cancerous tumor was diagnosed in the primary throwing muscle of his left arm. Doctors conducted an eight-hour operation to remove a malignant tumor and nearly half the deltoid muscle, and told him he never would pitch again.

Ten months later, on Aug. 10, 1989, Dravecky was back on the mound and pitched seven shutout innings for the San Francisco Giants in a 4-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.

But five days later, while pitching against the Montreal Expos, his left arm snapped and he collapsed on the mound in agony.

The bone healed and Dravecky was considering another comeback when the arm was broken again, this time during a freak on-field celebration with his teammates when the Giants clinched the 1989 National League pennant with a victory over the Chicago Cubs.

The second operation was performed in January of 1990 to remove the rest of the deltoid muscle and 10% of the triceps muscle. The most recent operation was in May 1990, when more tissue was removed and skin grafting was performed. The wound from the last operation has never healed properly.

Dravecky also has undergone several weeks of radiation treatment and several months of treatment for staph and strep infections.