"Everything went well. The surgery was successful and he's resting," said spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley.

Huntsman had suffered from soreness in his shoulder for several weeks and received a cortisone shot to relieve pain and swelling and tried to strengthen the joint, but heard a pop while lifting weights recently and was diagnosed with a ruptured tendon in the rotator cuff.

Robert Burks, the surgeon at the University of Utah Orthopedic Center who performed the procedure, said that the arthroscopic surgery the governor underwent generally involves making several small incisions on different sides of the shoulder. A small camera is inserted so doctors can see the tendon to be repaired, then doctors insert tools through the other incisions to stitch the tendon back together.

Burks said he could not speak specifically about Huntsman's surgery because of privacy issues.

Huntsman will be recovering with two of his children. His 16-year-old son, Jon Huntsman III, broke his leg in May while riding motorcycles at Miller Motor Speedway.

And the governor's oldest daughter, Mary Anne, 22, was hospitalized for several days after being diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in her lungs, that was treated with blood thinners. She was released from the hospital last week.

The governor checked into the hospital at about 7 a.m. and left at about 12:30 p.m., Roskelley said.

In most cases, a patient who has undergone rotator cuff surgery wears a sling to immobilize the shoulder for four to six weeks, then begins rehabilitation based on how well the shoulder has healed, Burks said.

"You get the occasional patient who sails through and looks like a champ and everything's great, but these are things where you've got to go slow to protect the tendon, then you start moving, but you haven't used it for six weeks, so you have some stiffness," said the doctor.

The governor has planned to take next week off to try to recuperate.

"If some things come up we'll be in touch with him, but we're just hoping for him to get some recovery time," Roskelley said.

Sen. Orrin Hatch underwent a similar surgery late last year to repair a frayed rotator cuff and remove bone spurs, and has spent months in painful physical therapy.