Sorin Group

The Sorin Group was a medical products group based in Italy, with significant operations in France, the United States, and Japan, specializing in cardiac devices. Its product lines include replacement heart valves, oxygenators, perfusion tubing sets, cardiothoracic surgery accessories, data monitoring, heart-lung machines, autotransfusion systems, and cannulae, and a line of blood management products.

It began as a nuclear research company owned primarily by Fiat, transformed into a biomedical company upon nationalization of Italy's electric system, sold to SNIA S.p.A., and finally spun off as a separate company listed on the . Along the way, it and its earlier parent companies bought and sold various other companies, including Dideco, Stöckert, and ELA Medical.

On February 26, 2015, Sorin Group announced that it will merge with fellow medical devices maker Cyberonics to form a new UK-based company called LivaNova.

Sorin is an acronym for Società Ricerche Impianti Nucleari (Company for Nuclear Plant Research). It was founded in 1956 by Fiat and Montedison, Italy's two largest industrial groups at that time, to tackle the problems inherent in the production of nuclear energy. Sorin was created as a research company and was equipped with an experimental reactor for materials research. It was intended to serve as the "brain" that would mastermind the nuclear energy projects that the two groups were planning. At the time, Sorin did not have ambitions in the medical field. However, in the decade following its founding, it accumulated significant technological knowhow in all of the major areas of science. This was because nuclear energy requires expertise in many areas, from electronics to chemistry, materials technology and even experimental physics. After 10 years in business, Sorin had become a repository of knowledge and skills that were important for the country as a whole.

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