Former US Vice President Dick Cheney is having elective back surgery at a Washington hospital. Cheney spokeswoman Lucy Tutwiler says the surgery Thursday is to deal with lumbar spinal stenosis, a common cause of lower back pain in older adults. Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal - the passage for the spinal cord - which in turn puts pressure on nerves, causing pain.
Surgery is done to widen the passage and ease that pressure, typically by removing a bit of the vertebra. Dr Anthony Caputy, chairman of the George Washington University Hospital's neurosurgery department, is performing the operation.