Artificial Esophagus for Measuring Ballooning Contacting Pressure

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (G ERD) is a con-dition where gastric juice in the stomach persistently flows back up into the esophageal tract. GERD symptoms range from mild heartburn and stomach acid leakage to severe esophageal complications. A conventional method to prevent acid reflux involves using a balloon to block the acid. However, prolonged use of a balloon can cause necrosis at the contact site. To prevent this, the contacting pressure requires optimal pressure adjustment. In this work, an artificial esophagus is proposed to measure contacting pressure by examining the deformation of a soft-tubular structure. The displacement of surface fiducials is tracked using imaging under given internal pressure, which represents the normal pressure exerted on the esophagus. The contacting pressure during inflation was compared between an extensible balloon (rubber-like) and a strain-limiting balloon (LDPE tube) inside the proposed soft esophagus. The results show that the strain-limiting balloon requires lower input pressure to generate a contacting pressure, and this pressure is limited by its strain. In contrast, the rubber-like balloon generates a contacting pressure non-linearly without constraint. Since rubber-like materials have hyper-elastic characteristics, their expansion could grow exponentially at high pressure, posing a high risk of esophageal tissue necrosis to patients.