Vice President Cheney walked slowly out of the hospital yesterday, one day after a procedure to repair aneurysms on the back of both knees.
Cheney emerged from George Washington University Hospital in the late morning with his wife, Lynne, at his side. He shook hands with doctors, then walked to his motorcade without assistance, although he moved more slowly than his normally brisk pace.
Cheney was under local anesthesia during the six-hour procedure Saturday.
His spokesman, Steve Schmidt, said the vice president is doing well but planned to work from home today.
An aneurysm is a ballooning weak spot in an artery that can eventually burst if left untreated. Cheney's aneurysms, known as popliteal aneurysms, were discovered during his annual physical in July.
Cheney had been scheduled Saturday to have only the right knee operated on, but during the procedure his doctors decided to do both, Schmidt said. There were no complications.
Cheney had flexible stent grafts put in his knee arteries. During the procedure, a stent graft is threaded through a catheter inserted in the femoral artery at the groin down to the aneurysm site. Fully opened, it is like a little tube inside the artery, keeping the rushing blood from touching the weakened artery walls.
This is a newer technique for patching aneurysms, an alternative to rerouting blood flow around the weak spot with a vein bypass.
Cheney, 64, has a history of heart problems. He has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and an operation to implant a pacemaker in his chest.
