ROME, Sept 5: A Mexican weighing 550 kilos and thought to be the fattest man in the world is to have his bodyweight surgically reduced in Italy.

Manuel Uribe Garza, 40, is to travel to Modena, central Italy, for his operation. Uribe Garza, 1.9 metres tall, has been suffering from ‘morbid obesity’ for around 20 years and is no longer mobile.

“We will hold a meeting in the coming days to work out the details of the hospitalisation and to prepare the operating theatre and the appropriate surgical tools,” professor Giancarlo DeBernardinis said on Tuesday.

“That is actually our main problem,” he explained: “We have to create a tailor-made operating theatre and we will also need extra-large tools and surgical retractors.”—AFP