Zanardi undergoes facial reconstruction surgery

Alex Zanardi underwent five-hour facial reconstruction surgery on Monday as part of ongoing treatment for serious injuries sustained in a hand cycling accident last month.

The surgery was Zanardi’s third since he lost control of his hand bike on a descent during a race and collided with a truck in Pienze on June 19. In addition to rebuilding his face, the surgery aimed to stabilize other injuries, and pave the way for a continuation of a treatment plan that includes specialists from several medical disciplines.

"The fractures were complex," said Dr. Paolo Gennaro, head of maxillofacial surgery at the Santa Maria alle Scotte Hospital in Siena. "This required careful programming that made use of computerized technologies, digital and three-dimensional, made to measure for the patient. The complexity of the case was rather singular, even if it is a type of fracture that we routinely face in our center.”

After the operation, Zanardi was returned to the hospital’s intensive care unit, where he remains in an induced coma. His reported condition of stable on the cardio-respiratory and metabolic front, and severe from the neurological standpoint, remains unchanged from previous updates issued by the facility.