Follow-Up Surgery For Mr. Clinton

Former President Clinton will undergo a medical procedure this week to remove an unusual buildup of fluid and scar tissue from his chest, six months after he underwent quadruple bypass surgery, his office said Tuesday. "I feel fine," Mr. Clinton said in Washington.

The low-risk procedure will take place Thursday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Mr. Clinton will remain hospitalized for three to 10 days and is expected to make a "full functional recovery," doctors said.

"The reality is because they've done a good job with the heart he should walk through the surgery without any complications and he's going in into it with a much better heart than the first time," American Heart Association cardiologist Dr. Richard Stein told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

Mr. Clinton, who planned to play a golf tournament in Florida on Wednesday with former President George H.W. Bush for tsunami relief, said doctors discovered the condition during a recent X-ray. He called the surgery a "routine sort of deal."

"I feel fine," Mr. Clinton told reporters following a visit to the Oval Office with the former president. "And we're going to go play golf tomorrow."

The procedure Mr. Clinton will undergo on Thursday is called
decortication and will be done under general anesthesia, reports CBS News Correspondent Dr. Emily Senay. During the operation surgeons will remove the scar tissue that's pressing up on his left lung and has made breathing uncomfortable. They'll likely use a device called a video assisted thorascope that will allow doctors to directly visualize the problem while they remove it with one to two instruments inserted between ribs.

"Really, this is a quality of life issue," said Dr. Michael Banbury, a heart surgeon at the famed Cleveland Clinic. Banbury told CBS News anchor Dan Rather the procedure is designed to

"It's not all that serious. First of all, this is not operation on his heart. His heart has already been taken care of. This is just to remove the peel of scar tissue that has trapped his left lung," said Banbury.
"So I would say the risk of this operation is quite low, certainly lower than his original heart surgery."

Schwartz said Mr. Clinton passed a full physical before leaving on a trip to Asia last month to survey tsunami damage. He also scored in the 95th percentile for his age in a stress test, Schwartz said.

Mr. Clinton, 58, had been quite active since his Sept. 6 heart surgery in New York, presiding over the opening of his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., and, more recently, joining the first President Bush for a public relations campaign to help raise private funds for the victims of the Asian tsunami.

Former President Bush said he had trouble keeping up with Mr. Clinton in Asia.

"You should have seen him going, town to town, country to country, Energizer Bunny here. He killed me," Mr. Bush said.

CBS News White House Correspondent Peter Maer, who covered Mr. Clinton's long journey across Asia, reports the former president looked somewhat gaunt during the trip.

"Some staffers on the plane heard him complain of fatigue at times, but along with former President Bush, he maintained a very hectic pace," reports Maer. "At one point he bragged about his exercise regimen, boasting that he now weighs the same as he did when he graduated from high school."

Mr. Clinton underwent quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery after suffering chest pains and shortness of breath.

In bypass surgery, doctors remove one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in the body and attach them to arteries serving the heart, detouring blood around blockages. The vessel typically comes from elsewhere in the chest, although doctors sometimes take one from an arm, a leg or the stomach.

Mr. Clinton previously blamed his blockage in part on genetics — there is a history of heart disease in his mother's family — but also said he "may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate."

As president, Mr. Clinton was an avid jogger also known for his love of fast food. He has appeared much slimmer since early in the year, when he said he had cut out junk food, gone on the South Beach diet – which limits carbohydrates and fats — and started a workout regimen.

He had a cancerous growth removed from his back shortly after leaving office. In 1996, he had a precancerous lesion removed from his nose and a year before that had a benign cyst taken off his chest.

But otherwise, Mr. Clinton suffered only the usual problems that often accompany normal aging and a taste for junk food — periods of slightly elevated cholesterol and hearing loss. In 1997, he was fitted with hearing aids. He also has had allergy problems.

Mr. Clinton said he would return to work as soon as possible following the surgery.

"I'm going to slow down for the next couple of weeks," he said. "But I'm in good shape."