Surgeons successfully carried out a seven-hour heart bypass operation Tuesday on President Boris Yeltsin to replace clogged arteries, and they said he should make a good recovery and resume his duties soon.
American heart expert Dr. Michael DeBakey, who consulted on the surgery, said Yeltsin should recover quickly without serious complications."On the basis of the results of the operation, I would predict the president to be able to return to his office and perform his duty in perfectly normal fashion," DeBakey told reporters after the operation at the Moscow Cardiological Center.
The operation came after months of uncertainty about the president's health and his ability to govern his vast, turbulent nation. Yeltsin and his aides hope the operation will end the doubt that has paralyzed the government in the past four months since his re-election.
Dr. Renat Akchurin, who performed the surgery, said Yeltsin would probably be able to reclaim his presidential powers from Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin within two days.
"He is going to decide that himself," the doctor said.
Akchurin said Yeltsin's heart was stopped for 68 minutes during the operation while he was kept alive on a heart-lung machine. He said the effects of anesthetic would not completely wear off until Wednesday.
He said that immediately after surgery doctors want to keep bypass patients on a respirator for a day or so to make sure no complications develop.
A variety of complications are possible after a bypass, including bleeding and heart rhythm abnormalities.
"The president now breathes like any patient using an artificial respirator," Ak-chur-in said. "Surgeons are cautious not to stop the respirator too early, fearing post-operation complications . . . relating to the heart muscle's function."
Looking tired but pleased, Akchurin said there had been no unexpected problems. The Russian doctor said Yeltsin still faced a recovery period, but his heart would now beable to function well.
Akchurin declined to say how many bypasses he performed on the president, insisting it was a personal matter for the patient.
"Sometimes one bypass is enough. But sometimes up to five or six bypasses are needed to save the patient," he said.
Doctors expect Yeltsin to return to work after six weeks to eight weeks of rest.
Spokesman Sergei Yas-trz-hemb-sky said the bypass operation took seven hours, ending around 2 p.m. (4 a.m. MST).
Yeltsin was confident and joked with doctors before the surgery, which was carried out by a team of 12 Russian doctors, including four surgeons.
"I'm not going to stay in the hospital bed for too long. I believe that I soon will be working as before - at full strength," Yeltsin said before the operation.
Shortly before going under the knife, Yeltsin transferred power, including control of Russia's vast nuclear arsenal, to Chernomyrdin. The premier visited the hospital while Yeltsin was in surgery, but made no public comment.
The surgical team was led by Akchurin, who trained in the United States with DeBakey. DeBakey and a team of American and German surgeons watched the surgery on a monitor outside the operating room in case advice was needed.
Akchurin said recently that his team performed 650 heart bypass operations a year in a country where the surgery is conducted only a few thousand times annually, due in part to economic hardship.
By comparison, American doctors perform hundreds of thousands of such operations annually.
Several members of Yeltsin's family were at the hospital.
The president "appeared energetic and felt optimistic and was joking before the operation," Yastrzhembsky said.
Meeting the chief Kremlin physician, Dr. Sergei Mironov, before the surgery, Yeltsin smiled and jokingly asked, "Are you carrying a knife already?" the spokesman said.
The 65-year-old president also thanked those who had wished him a quick recovery.
"Dear Russians, you are all aware that I have to undergo a serious operation. I would like to thank all of you who sent letters and telegrams. Compassion and kind words are sometimes more important than any medicine," he said in a statement.
Talking about the responsibility of operating on the president, Akchurin said, "I tried to forget that this is the president of Russia and tried to think of him as a patient."
If Yeltsin were to die or was incapacitated, Chernomyrdin would take over, but would be required to call elections within three months.
In transferring his powers temporarily to Chernomyrdin, Yeltsin assured the Russian nation that the government was in firm hands and there was no need for concern.
"The country will not be left without a leader," he said in the statement.
Russia faces growing discontent as the economy continues to decline and millions of workers go without pay. Yeltsin won a second four-year term in July, but many Russians doubt the government can fix the nation's problems.