Award for surgeon's sewing machine-inspired device

A surgeon who was inspired by his aunt's sewing machine to invent a pioneering heart surgery device has been given an award.

Prof Gianni Angelini, a surgeon at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Bristol, was one of many surgeons faced with the problem of being unable to stitch a moving heart during coronary artery surgery.

But while visiting his family in Italy in the 1990s, he watched his aunt use a sewing machine to stitch a pair of his trousers - and was inspired to create a stabilising surgical device.

He has now been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Coronary Artery Surgery for his work on The Angelini articulated stabiliser.

"I was visiting the family," said Prof Angelini. "I'd just bought a pair of trousers which needed to be shortened.

"My aunty, a seamstress, was doing the job. And suddenly, I saw the foot of the sewing machine which was pressing against the trousers.

"And I realised then, I needed something like that."

Prof Angelini, BHF Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Bristol, worked with his team at the Bristol Heart Institute to pioneer a new technique to perform coronary artery bypass surgery on a beating heart using his device.

It enables operations to take place without having to slow the patient's heart down, which improves how the heart is protected and increases the chances of survival for patients.

Before this, a bypass machine had to be used to pump blood around the patient so the heart could remain still and be operated on – a procedure which can come with complications.

The Angelini articulated stabiliser was inspired by a sewing machine

Prof Angelini designed the stabiliser device and devoted two years of his career to its development.

The device was made of stainless steel and cost about £800, but it could be reused hundreds of times.

Although disposable stabilisers are more commercially available, prototypes like Prof Angelini's stabiliser have paved the way for modern-day inventions.

He said: "When I started my training in the early 1980s, the mortality for coronary artery bypass surgery was around 15% to 20%; now it is down to 1% to 2%."

In 2024, Prof Angelini was named as one of the Seven Wise Cardiac Surgeons of the Golden Age of the 1990s, a reference to the Ancient Greek tradition of naming the seven wisest men.

Prof Angelini said he was honoured alongside some of his heroes at the Old Greek Parliament.

"It was very exciting, because the other six people were what I'd describe as my heroes," he said.

"I was really the baby of the bunch because these guys were the generation before mine.

"I felt pleased with this as a recognition from my peers and to be in the presence of such distinguished surgeons."