First lady returns to White House from hospital

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump returned to the White House in “high spirits” Saturday after a five-day hospitalization for kidney treatment.

Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, declined to release additional details, citing Mrs. Trump’s right to privacy.

“The First Lady returned home to the White House this morning,” Grisham said in an emailed statement Saturday. “She is resting comfortably and remains in high spirits. Our office has received thousands of calls and emails wishing Mrs. Trump well, and we thank everyone who has taken the time to reach out.”

First ladies are under no obligation to make their Melania Trump medical histories public.

Mrs. Trump had been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington since Monday, when she had an embolization procedure to treat an unspecified kidney condition that the White House described as benign.

Grisham said Monday that the procedure was “successful,” there were no complications and that Mrs. Trump would probably remain hospitalized for “the duration of the week.”

Urologists with no personal knowledge of Mrs. Trump’s condition said the most likely explanation for the procedure is a kind of noncancerous kidney tumor called an angiomyolipoma. They’re not common but tend to occur in middleaged women and can cause problematic bleeding if they become large enough, said Dr. Keith Kowalczyk of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

Doctors often treat the condition by cutting off the blood supply so the growth shrinks, added Dr. Lambros Stamatakis of MedStar Washington Hospital Center. That is done with an embolization, meaning a catheter is snaked into the blood vessels of the kidney to find the right one to block. Many times, embolization patients go home the same day or the next.

Grisham on Saturday characterized speculation about the first lady as “uninformed,” adding that every patient is different.