SAO PAULO — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will undergo a new procedure on Thursday (Dec 12) morning to complement the surgery he went through this week to drain a bleed on his brain, the hospital said on Wednesday in a medical update that stressed he was doing well.

Doctors operated on the leftist leader for about two hours on Tuesday to drain bleeding between his brain and meningeal membrane, which doctors said was linked to a late October fall at his home.

Thursday’s endovascular procedure will help minimise the risk of future bleeding, his personal doctor, Roberto Kalil Filho, told reporters on Wednesday.

Doctors will hold a press conference following Thursday’s surgery, the hospital said.

Kalil said the procedure — a middle meningeal artery embolisation — is “relatively simple” and “low risk,” adding it should take approximately one hour.

The follow-up procedure had been discussed by doctors since Tuesday’s surgery, and does not represent a worsening of Lula’s health situation, according to Kalil.

“We waited to see that the president was recovering well before deciding to go ahead with the procedure,” he said.

Sao Paulo’s Sirio-Libanes Hospital said in its update note that the 79-year-old president was in intensive care but had no complications during the day, when he walked, received visits from family members and did physiotherapy.

The emergency surgery added to health concerns about the elderly president, an icon of the Latin American left who is halfway through his latest term after previously serving in the role from 2003 to 2011.

Earlier in the day, a previous medical note said Lula was lucid and talking following the overnight hospital stay and had experienced no post-surgery complications.

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