New Delhi, Friday 23 January 2009: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will undergo heart surgery at AIIMS on Saturday.

“Dr Manmohan Singh will undergo coronary artery bypass graft surgery on January 24 at AIIMS,” said PMO spokesperson Deepak Sandhu.

The PM has been admitted to AIIMS for tomorrow’s surgery, which will be performed by a team of doctors from AIIMS and the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, the spokesperson added

The Prime Minister will miss the Republic Day parade.

Earlier this week, the PM underwent extensive medical tests at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

An official PMO statement on Wednesday said the PM had undergone “diagnostic evaluation” and “treatment procedures which have been recommended would be undertaken in a few days”. It was said on Tuesday that Singh was being given an overall medical check-up.

Doctors attending to the PM made it clear that he did not face any medical emergency. They said he was stable and did not face any physical discomfort during the tests. The doctors who conducted angiography - X-ray examination of the blood vessels or chambers of the heart through a small tube inserted into a blood vessel - on Singh also carried out multiple blood chemistry tests, CT scan and ECG. These tests are understood to have revealed arterial blockages in the heart.

Singh, 76, is a diabetic and has been controlling the condition with medicines and exercise like regular walking. He underwent a cardiac bypass surgery in 1990 in UK, and angioplasty in Delhi in 2004 in which stents were introduced in his arteries.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to officiate in his absence.
(Agency)