ROME – The Presidential palace announced Wednesday morning that Sergio Mattarella underwent pacemaker implantation yesterday evening at 8:00 p.m., which went successfully. 

 The note from the Quirinale provided an update on the health conditions of the President of the Republic following the “scheduled” operation, which he underwent yesterday evening, after his scheduled commitments during the day, including a meeting with the Prime Minister of Montenegro in the late afternoon. After the operation, he returned to the cardiology department of the Roman hospital, Santo Spirito, where he spent a “calm” night.  The announcement continued saying that Mattarella was completely asymptomatic, in a stable clinical condition and was already reading the newspapers on his iPad this morning. Mattarella’s conditions will continue to be monitored but with this kind of medical procedure, discharge from the hospital occurs within 48 hours of the implantation.

 The news of the operation spread yesterday afternoon, along with the announcement of the cancellation of an event at the Quirinale scheduled for April 16. Bipartisan messages of support have come from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, as well as the leaders of the opposition parties.

 A pacemaker is an electrical device similar in size to a two-euro coin, which is placed under the skin in patients with bradycardia – which is a condition in which the heart rate is too slow. This is a procedure considered routine in cardiology and the recovery is typically immediate, with a few days of hospitalization to stabilize the implant. The procedure involves the insertion of a pacemaker which replaces the heart beat with an electrical impulse. In Italy, 50 thousand pacemaker implant procedures are performed each year and the average age of patients is 81 and the President himself is 83, which is a higher-than-average age for receiving the implant.

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