Ryan Seacrest Gets Surgery—Will He Be Back for American Idol?

He gets "easy and practically noninvasive" outpatient procedure done to fix a torn tendon in his elbow

By Rebecca Macatee Mar 29, 2012 7:37 PMTags
Ryan SeacrestKevin Winter/Getty Images for ATI

Ryan Seacrest is a busy guy, but some of his gigs are a lot less fun than others.

After filming American Idol Wednesday, Ryan headed off to see "ElAttrache the elbow guy" for "a procedure."

So just what did our E! pal have done? Will he be back on Idol tonight?

"I had a probe stuck into my right elbow," he explained Thursday on his KISS FM radio show. "I'm not [a robot]… [but] they went in with a tiny little probe and they scraped some scar tissue from the tendon, cause I tore the tendon from working out."

But Ryan didn't go under for this outpatient surgery—he was wide awake!

"I couldn't look," he said. "But [I could feel] the pressure."

He even came across a scheduling snafu mid-doctor's visit. "I didn't calculate suturing into my schedule," he quipped. "I thought it was an in-and-out, 12-minute procedure."

The whole thing actually took a couple hours, and although Ryan admits he's "not a great patient," everything went just fine. He even tweeted an Instagram photo of surgery's aftermath.

"It was very easy and practically noninvasive," he said. He also realized "Neal the knee guy," who he's mentioned on-air before, is actually Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the elbow doctor.

"His name is Neal ElAttrache," Ryan said. "He's a joint guy!"

"I can't have any more joint problems," he joked. "Because I have no more alliteration!"

—Additional reporting by Maureen Heaton