"One explanation is that it she had a benign, fatty tumor of the kidney known as Angiomyolipoma," said Dr. Mohamad Allaf, vice chairman of Urology at Johns Hopkins University. "These can be sporadic and happen randomly in otherwise healthy people."
Patients can choose to treat these growths with embolization, a less-invasive procedure that isolates and blocks blood vessels feeding the tumor by catheterizing an artery, Allaf explained.
However, people usually go home the same day, he pointed out, which makes the first lady's lengthier stay "atypical."
"The fact that they said she is going to be there all week puts an interesting spin on it," Allaf said, suggesting that perhaps it was a "very large" growth and doctors wanted to observe her for a longer period of time due to the size and potential after effects.
"When such a large thing is being killed inside your body you can get sick and not feel that great after so they might want to observe her for this period of time," he said. "Or perhaps there is more to it and she is getting other tests done."
If she did have a benign tumor embolized, Allaf noted that she may require follow-up procedures.
www.buzzfeed.com/...