THE Pope’s doctors are considering an operation to insert a tube into his abdomen so that he can be fed without having to swallow, according to Vatican sources.

It came as one expert said that he doubted that the Pope would speak again. Stefano Ruggiero, Professor of Neurology at Rome University, said: “He has extraordinary physical robustness and an iron will, but he simply does not have the strength left in his vocal cords.”

Under the procedure, called a gastrostomy, surgeons make a small cut on the side of the abdomen and into the stomach. A catheter with a balloon on the end of it is inserted through the cut. The tube, which is made of PVC or rubber, is then sutured to the skin.

If carried out, a gastrostomy would mean that the pontiff — who turns 85 in May — would breathe and be fed with the aid of tubes.

Italian newspapers yesterday confirmed that the Pope may return to the Gemelli hospital for tests on the tube inserted in his throat in a tracheotomy performed on February 24.

Corriere della Sera said that the new hospital treatment, which would be the third since February, would probably take place next week. The paper said that the Pope’s condition was “perhaps less encouraging than the Vatican would like to admit”.

It said that the return to hospital would enable doctors not only to check the windpipe tube but also to conduct a lung scan and deal with “feeding problems” arising from the Pope’s inability to swallow properly, a side-effect of Parkinson’s disease.

A gastrostomy can be performed under general or local anaesthetic. The Pope’s doctors, however, will have to weigh up the possible complications, which include bleeding, infection, allergic reactions and stomach upsets.

La Repubblica said that there were unconfirmed reports that the pontiff had suffered a mild stroke recently. Renato Buzzonetti, the Pope’s personal doctor, said that he was “reasonably calm” about the pontiff’s condition.

The Pope was unable to preside at Holy Week events for the first time in his 26-year tenure, and he alarmed the world on Easter Day by struggling in vain to utter the Latin Urbi et Orbi blessing.

To the disappointment of thousands of pilgrims, he failed to appear for the traditional Easter Monday blessing, even though Vatican television cameras were trained on his window above St Peter’s Square. Aides said that he had been ordered to take “absolute rest” after the exertions of Easter Day. They insisted that he had managed to speak in private beforehand, but had been “overcome by the emotion of the event” when the microphone was placed in front of him, and hence had managed only unintelligible sounds.

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