Cheney in good condition after aneurysm surgery

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney walked slowly out of the hospital Sunday, one day after surgery to repair aneurysms on the back of both his knees.\nCheney emerged from George Washington University Hospital in the late morning with his wife, Lynne, at his side. He shook hands with doctors and then walked to his motorcade without any assistance, although he moved slower than his normally brisk pace.\nCheney, who has a history of heart problems, was under local anesthesia during the six-hour surgery Saturday.\nThe vice president's spokesman, Steve Schmidt, said the vice president planned to resume his regular schedule after being released.\nAfter the operation, Cheney was "awake, alert, comfortable," Schmidt said.\nAn aneurysm is a ballooning weak spot in an artery that, as blood pulses through, eventually can burst if left untreated. Cheney's aneurysms, known as popliteal aneurysms, were discovered during his annual physical in July.\nCheney had been scheduled to have only the right knee operated on Saturday but during the surgery his doctors decided to do both at once, Schmidt said. There were no complications.\nCheney had flexible stent grafts put in his knee arteries. During the procedure, the stent graft is threaded through a catheter inserted in the femoral artery at the groin down to the aneurysm site. Fully opened, it's like a little tube inside the artery, keeping the rushing blood from touching the weakened artery walls.\nThis is a newer technique for patching aneurysms, and an alternative to rerouting blood flow around the weak spot with a vein bypass.\nDr. Bernadette Aulivola, assistant professor of surgery at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., said about 60 percent of patients with this type of aneurysm in one knee also have it in the other. She said the surgery usually is performed on one knee at a time to avoid complications but that if both procedures went smoothly Cheney should recover quickly.\n"When he goes home he should be back to normal, basically back to his baseline activity," Aulivola said, adding that crutches and wheelchairs are usually not required after this kind of procedure.\nCheney, 64, has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant a special pacemaker in his chest. The pacemaker starts automatically if needed to regulate his heartbeat.\nA vascular exam, part of a two-part annual physical Cheney completed in July, identified "small, dilated segments of the arteries behind both knees."\nCheney's overall cardio health was judged as good after the first part of the exam, which included a general physical exam, an electrocardiogram and a stress test. The checkup determined that the pacemaker was working well and never had to be activated.\nAssociated Press reporter Tom Baum contributed to this report.