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Mar 8, 2005 11:23 am US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) Former President Clinton, who underwent quadruple bypass surgery in September, will undergo a medical procedure Thursday to remove fluid and scar tissue from his left chest, his office announced.

The procedure, which happens occasionally as a result of open-heart surgery, will take place Thursday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He will remain in the hospital for three to 10 days, his office said in a statement.

Clinton was proceeding with his schedule on Tuesday and planned to be at a White House event later in the day, according to his spokesman, Jim Kennedy.

Clinton, 58, had been quite active since his Sept. 6 heart surgery in New York, presiding over the opening of his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. and, more recently, joining the first President Bush for a public relations campaign to help raise private funds for the victims of the tsunami in Southwest Asia.

Clinton underwent quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery last fall after suffering chest pains and shortness of breath.

In bypass surgery, doctors remove one or more blood vessels from elsewhere in the body and attach them to arteries serving the heart, detouring blood around blockages. The vessel typically comes from elsewhere in the chest, although doctors sometimes take one from an arm, a leg or the stomach.

Clinton previously blamed his blockage in part on genetics - there is a history of heart disease in his mother's family - but also said he "may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate."

As president, Clinton was an avid jogger also known for his love of fast food. He has appeared much slimmer since early in the year, when he said he had cut out junk food, gone on the South Beach diet - which limits carbohydrates and fats - and started a workout regimen.

Clinton had a cancerous growth removed from his back shortly after leaving office. In 1996, he had a precancerous lesion removed from his nose and a year before that had a benign cyst taken off his chest.

But otherwise, Clinton suffered only the usual problems that often accompany normal aging and a taste for junk food - periods of slightly elevated cholesterol and hearing loss. In 1997, he was fitted with hearing aids, and he also battled allergies.

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