Surgeons in Milan on Tuesday successfully performed an operation to replace former premier Silvio Berlusconi's aortic valve, one of his top aides, Gianni Letta, told reporters, citing the San Raffaele hospital.
"I was worried, but everything is fine," said Letta, 81, who served as cabinet under-secretary to three of Berlusconi's governments.
Several members of 79-year-old Berlusconi's family stayed with him in hospital for the four-hour operation and his younger brother, Paolo Berlusconi, 66, arrived at the hospital afterwards.
The four-hour operation began at 8am, with 69-year-old Ottavio Alfieri, the San Raffaele's chief heart surgeon, leading the medical team.
Berlusconi's personal physician, Alberto Zangrillo, 58, San Raffaele's top anaesthetist, was also part of the team.
Berlusconi will spend several days in an intensive care unit following surgery and will then undergo a month of rehabilitation at the hospital.
The billionaire media tycoon, founder and leader of the centre-right Forza Italia party, was admitted to the San Raffaele on 6 June with a life-threatening condition caused by the faulty aortic valve.
Berlusconi had a pacemaker fitted in a hospital in the United States when he was 70 but has remained at the helm of Forza Italia.
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