A new surgical sewing device for continuous sutures of gastrointestinal anastomoses with needle and suture material was used for the first time to construct a latero-lateral enterostomy (functional end-to-end anastomosis) in the small intestine of pigs. In ten animals the course was mainly uneventful during the observation period of 10 days. One animal developed a postoperative anastomotic leakage. In five cases adhesions between the anastomotic region and the small intestine were found on postmortem examination, but there was no evidence of any slight leakage. On the whole, the sewing device operated faultlessly. At present, clinical use seems possible for long sutures, which are time-consuming when sewn manually, but it is still premature. One major disadvantage of the device is its size, which restricts its application to extra-abdominal tasks. Nonetheless, the principle of a mechanical device for running sutures should be investigated further.