Italy's Berlusconi to undergo heart surgery: doctor

The 79-year-old leader and media mogul was admitted to hospital on Monday suffering from 'cardiac deficiency'

MILAN: Four-time Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will undergo heart surgery by the middle of next week to replace a defective aortic valve, his doctor said on Thursday.

"We have identified in an exact and certain way a pathology of aortic valve that is called aortic insufficiency," Berlusconi's personal doctor Alberto Zangrillo told reporters.

"There's only one way to correct it, which is the substitution of the aortic valve."

The 79-year-old centre-right leader and media mogul was admitted to hospital on Monday suffering from what his doctors called a "cardiac deficiency".

Zangrillo said Berlusconi should make a full recovery within a month.