Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner underwent three-and-a-half hours of surgery on Wednesday for thyroid cancer and emerged “without any problem”, her spokesman said.

Ms Kirchner had the surgery to remove her thyroid gland in the city of Pilar, north of Buenos Aires.

“The operation was performed on the President without any problem or complication,” spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro said in front of Hospital Austral, where hundreds of supporters had gathered to show their support.

Ms Kirchner awoke after the surgery and showed signs of “a good immediate post-operative recovery,” according to a statement from her surgeon, Pedro Saco.

Ms Kirchner’s cancer was discovered during a routine medical exam on December 22, only 12 days after she was sworn in for a second term as Argentina’s President. She won re-election in October in a landslide.

She was scheduled to be hospitalised for 72 hours with a 20-day recovery period, during which Vice President Amado Boudou is taking over Ms Kirchner’s executive branch responsibilities.

The President, 58, arrived at the hospital on Wednesday morning with her children Maximo and Florencia on board a helicopter.

Ms Kirchner, the country’s first elected female President, was diagnosed with cancer “on the right lobe of the thyroid gland”.

Doctors predicted she would be able to resume all of her duties.

Supporters camped out at the hospital since put up posters that said Be Strong Cristina along with flags and banners showing the faces of Ms Kirchner and her deceased husband, Nestor.

Ms Kirchner is one of several Latin American leaders to suffer from cancer since 2009. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo have all waged battles against the disease and say they are now cancer-free.

Mr Chavez last week said that the US could have developed a “technology to induce cancer” in Latin American leaders, without offering evidence such technology existed.