Pedrosa Undergoes Surgery
Cycle News Staff | April 6, 2011
Dani Pedrosa underwent successful surgery on his left collarbone, but his fitness for the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril on May 1 remains a question mark.The surgery on the Repsol Honda rider was performed to decompress his left subclavian artery, one of two main arteries that run down the side of the body. The surgery was necessitated after Pedrosa suffered a loss of feeling in his left arm during the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on March 20. The original injury, a double fracture of the left collarbone, was suffered during practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi last October.The surgery came days after Pedrosa finished second in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. The race was run on a drying track, which kept the pace down and didn’t tax his shoulder as much as a dry race would have. In each of six MotoGP seasons, Pedrosa hasn’t finished worse than second at Jerez, with a win and five seconds.
The surgery to release the arterial compression was performed by Dr. César García-Madrid, vascular surgeon, and Dr. Joaquim Casañas, trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, both specialists at Teknon Medical Centre in Barcelona.The surgery involved removing the titanium plate and screws that have held the collarbone together since surgery in Spain in November. The subclavian artery was also separated from the fibrotic tissues that surrounded the collarbone. A further procedure confirmed that blood was flowing in the subclavian vein.Pedrosa will stay in the hospital for two more days while his condition is evaluated and swelling from the surgery eases. He’ll visit his doctors next week to determine the course of his rehabilitation, as well as his fitness for the race in Estoril.
