Surgeon pleased with operation on Prince's finger

PRINCE William will return to hospital next week so that doctors can remove the plastercast from his left hand and gauge the success of last weekend's operation on his fractured index finger.

Prof Frank Burke, the surgeon in charge of the two-hour operation, said yesterday that the surgery had been "challenging" and he had been "very pleased" with the results. Staff at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary's Pulvertaft Hand Centre said it had been "a delight" to look after the 16-year-old Prince, who delayed his departure after the operation to watch the Grand National on BBC1.

The decision to operate was taken because an injury sustained in an Eton rugby match four months ago had failed to heal properly. A fragment of the Prince's bone close to the joint at the base of his left index finger had been displaced and the joint was unstable as a result. If left in that state, the joint could have become arthritic later.

The Prince was driven to the centre on Saturday morning, accompanied by a detective and Tiggy Legge-Bourke, a family friend. Once the Prince had a general anaesthetic, Prof Burke and Peter Lunn inserted pins at either end of the fracture. A 1.5mm screw was then placed between them while a wire was wrapped around the bone. The operation was observed by John Webb, a Nottingham-based orthopaedic surgeon who was part of the team that rebuilt the Prince of Wales's right arm after a polo injury in 1990.

Brian Ibell, assistant chief executive of Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals Trust, said: "The Prince was a super chap to look after and very unassuming." Of Saturday's operation, Prof Burke said: "It took a while and exercised my colleague and myself quite considerably but we were very pleased with the result."

Princess Margaret, meanwhile, continues to make a slow recovery after scalding her feet in a bath in Mustique last month.

3 April 1999: Prince William to become a godfather
15 August 1998: Prince William tests career prospects with the SAS
20 June 1998: William on Eton, girls and life at 16

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