To register for your free place at this inaugural lecture, please contact Emma Watson (e.watson@imperial.ac.uk) of the NHLI.
Heart surgery has only been a surgical specialty for a little over 50 years. At that time, a small professional group of thoracic surgeons were researching the boundaries of science and surgery, mostly in the area of lung cancer and congenital heart disease. Their research horizon was suddenly expanded by a remarkable new technology, the cardiopulmonary bypass machine, which allowed reconstructive work within and on the arrested heart whilst keeping it in a bloodless and motionless surgical field.
Over the years, improvements in surgical, anaesthetic and perfusion techniques have made heart surgery one of the safest surgical specialities.
More recently, there has been an explosion of new developments such as robotic, minimally invasive valve and coronary surgery, new surgical procedures for the treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy, and gene and stem cell therapy.
Today’s cardiac surgeons need to embrace new technologies but, at the same time, keep their scientific foundations in the context of what remains a craft speciality.
Biography
Professor Gianni Angelini qualified as a mechanical engineer prior to obtaining his degree in medicine from the University of Siena, Italy, in 1979. He trained in London, Cardiff and Rotterdam before been appointed as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield.
In 1992 he was appointed to the British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiac Surgery in the University of Bristol, and when the Bristol Heart Institute was opened in 1995 he became its Head.
In 2003 he was awarded the”Cavaliere Order of Merit of Italy” in recognition of his contribution to medicine. In 2005 Professor Angelini and his team received the UK “Surgical Team of the Year Award”
In 2008 and 2011 he led the successful bid for the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Medicine in Bristol and he was appointed as Director. In 2011 he was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences.
His main research interests are in the area of saphenous vein bypass graft failure, myocardial protection, coronary artery bypass surgery on the beating heart and arterial revascularisation.