
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 26, 1990                   TAG: 9005260220
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

DOCTORS ADVISE REAGAN TO CANCEL EUROPEAN TRIP

Former President Reagan on Friday postponed a trip to Europe on the advice of doctors who say he should limit his activities for several weeks because of complications from cancer surgery in 1985.

"Several small adhesions have developed in President Reagan's small intestine, which his physicians believe are a result of his abdominal surgery in 1985," said Reagan spokesman Mark Weinberg.

Adhesions often appear after abdominal surgery and are rarely serious, said Zbigniew Petrovich, a specialist in colorectal cancer at the University of Southern California. When a patient has adhesions, the exterior wall of the bowels becomes attached to another part of the bowel, Petrovich said.

In extreme cases, surgery is required when the adhesions obstruct the bowel, "but they are rarely that serious," Petrovich said.

"Surgery is not now contemplated. Hospitalization is not now contemplated," Weinberg said, adding that the 79-year-old former president still plans to fly to San Francisco next month to meet with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Reagan was seen by a doctor on Friday, but Weinberg didn't discuss any aspect of the visit.

Weinberg said Reagan "won't be admitted to a hospital in the near future," but added that the former president may go to St. John's Hospital and Medical Center in nearby Santa Monica for examination because of equipment there.

by CNB