A brain scan that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has just undergone
showed positive results, doctors said on Thursday.
According to a statement issued by Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital where Sharon
is being treated, Sharon's brain scan on Thursday evening showed that the
remnants of the blood in his brain from a severe stroke and haemorrhage last
week have been absorbed.
Doctors had removed a tube they had put into Sharon's skull to reduce
intracranial pressure, according to the statement.
The prime minister has remained in critical but stable condition, it added.
Meanwhile, doctors said Sharon was taken to the operating room on Thursday
evening to receive a semi-permanent peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC
line) in his arm that will make it easier to give him infusions.
Charles Weissman, Hadassah's chief of anesthesiology, confirmed to local
newspaper The Jerusalem Post that Sharon had shown signs of an excessively rapid
heartbeat for a short time while in his hospital bed.
"This is not surprising, and very common among intensive care unit patients.
It is not a setback at all. We caught it quickly and gave him Procor, a drug
that slows down the heartbeat. It is under control," said the professor.
The hospital spokeswoman also confirmed that the insertion of the PICC line
was meant to make it easier to give Sharon a variety of liquids and medications.
Weissman explained that Sharon's initial catheter was introduced into the
jugular vein in his neck, the vein that brings de-oxygenated blood from the
head, neck, arm and chest regions of the body to the right atrium of the heart.