Melania Trump will spend week in hospital after surgery to treat ‘benign kidney condition’

The US first lady Melania Trump has undergone surgery to treat what the White House has called a “benign kidney condition”.

Mrs Trump, 48, is expected to remain in hospital for the rest of the week after the “long-planned” operation.

She had an embolisation procedure on Monday morning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre outside Washington, her staff said.

President Donald Trump visited her later on Monday and tweeted that the procedure was “successful” and that his wife was in “good spirits”.

The White House did not offer any additional details on Mrs Trump’s condition, though vice president Mike Pence described the procedure as “long planned”.

“Melania is already on the mend,” he added.

She was last seen in public on Wednesday at a White House event where she and the president honoured military mothers and spouses for US Mother’s Day.

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Experts said the most likely explanation for the procedure is a kind of non-cancerous kidney tumour called an angiomyolipoma.

They are not common but tend to occur in middle-aged women and can cause problematic bleeding if they become large enough, said Dr Keith Kowalczyk of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

“The treatment of choice” is to cut off the blood supply so the growth shrinks, added Dr Lambros Stamatakis of MedStar Washington Hospital Centre.

Doctors do that with an embolisation, meaning a catheter is snaked into the blood vessels of the kidney to find the right one and block it.

The Slovenia-born former model married Mr Trump in 2005. They have a 12-year-old son named Barron.

Mrs Trump, who has been gradually raising her profile as first lady, recently hosted her first state dinner and launched a public awareness campaign to help children.

With the president watching, Mrs Trump last week unveiled the “Be Best” campaign, which she said will focus on childhood well-being, social media use and opioid abuse.

Mrs Trump joined her husband last month to host the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, for a two-day summit at the Trumps’ Florida estate, and the Trumps hosted Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, at the White House on a three-day state visit, including a lavish state dinner.

Mrs Trump also represented the administration at the April funeral of former first lady Barbara Bush.

The Trumps and their marriage have been under scrutiny in recent months after revelations that a porn actress was paid $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about claims she had sex with Mr Trump in 2006.

Mr Trump has acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for the payment to porn star Stormy Daniels but denies her allegations.

Separately, a former Playboy model has revived her allegations of a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006. Mr Trump also denies the allegations from Karen McDougal.

Mrs Trump has, at times, has been noticeably absent from her husband’s side.

But both made a point of displaying affection during last week’s Rose Garden event where the first lady announced her “Be Best” initiative.

The first lady lived full time in New York during the administration’s opening months so Barron would not have to change schools midyear. She and Barron moved into the White House last June.