First lady Melania Trump underwent an embolization procedure to treat a kidney condition her office described as benign but required medical attention.
First Lady Doing Well After Surgery
A statement from the White House said that Mrs. Trump underwent surgery at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday.
"Mrs. Trump is at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and will likely remain there for the duration of the week," the statement said.
"The First Lady looks forward to a full recovery so she can continue her work on behalf of children everywhere."
It added that the procedure was successful and without complications.
The first lady's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, who has visited her, said that Trump is doing well and is in good spirits.
Angiomyolipoma
The White House did not elaborate on the condition of the first lady or on the procedure.
Urologists, however, said that the most common condition for which an embolization procedure is used would be for angiomyolipoma, a benign growth of fat and muscle in the kidney. The condition tends to occur in middle-aged women and may cause problematic bleeding if the tumor becomes large enough.
The benign tumors are often found when people undergo medical scans but there are times they get detected because of pain or other symptoms.
Embolization
The treatment of choice for the condition is through embolization, which involves cutting off the blood supply to the abnormal growth so it would shrink and eventually die off.
"In this procedure, an interventional radiologist uses imaging guidance to insert a catheter into a primary artery and advance it to blood vessel leading to a tumor or other area where the bloody supply needs to be blocked," the Cancer Treatment Centers of America explained.
Urologists said that kidney embolization procedures are often well tolerated and may only cause minor side effects such as fever, as well as pain in the kidney and at the injection site.
The procedure takes one to two hours but Mrs. Trump will likely stay at the hospital for the week, which is not unusual after this procedure.
"You can get pretty sick after an embolization because there's a lot of inflammation that can go on you can get a fever and you want to make sure there are no complications like abnormal bleeding or infection," said chief medical correspondent for CBS News Jon LaPook.
Melania Trump is the first U.S. first lady to go through such a serious medical procedure while her husband sits in the White House since Nancy Reagan had mastectomy in October 1987.
