King Juan Carlos will be operated this Sunday at a Madrid hospital for a herniated disc, yet another surgery following the hip operation he underwent last Nov. 23.
Spanish neurosurgeon Manuel de la Torre Gutierrez will perform the operation at La Milagrosa Clinic with a high-precision device of latest-generation technology known as the “neuronavigator.”
So that the operation cause “the least bother possible” for the usual functioning of the clinic and its surroundings, the royal household chose to have the operation on Sunday, when there are no doctor’s visits.
The neurosurgeon, who has worked several years providing medical services for the Zarzuela Palace, residence of the Spanish royal family, will perform the surgery in the only operating room in Spain equipped with an O-Arm neuronavigator, which is only available at a half-dozen hospitals in the world.
This will be the 11th surgery for the king since the 1980s. Over the past three years, Juan Carlos has had both hips replaced along with his right knee, a torn Achilles tendon repaired and a benign tumor removed from his lung.
This week the king, 75, had to visit another medical center in Madrid for a slight dislocation of the left hip, the result of a loosening of the prosthesis implanted last Nov. 23 due to the degenerative osteoarthritis that caused him sharp pains and mobility problems.
Villamor had implanted another prosthesis on April 14 after the monarch fractured his right hip, also suffering from osteoarthritis, as a result of a fall during a private trip to Botswana.
