2026-08-10 · Soft Robotics · 28 citations

RoSE: A Robotic Soft Esophagus for Endoprosthetic Stent Testing

Dipankar Bhattacharya, Sherine Jesna V. A., Leo K. Cheng, Weiliang Xu

Published at Soft Robotics (the arXiv record still lists it as a preprint). 28 citations, 1 of them influential, as of the last refresh.

Abstract

Soft robotic systems are well suited for developing devices for biomedical applications. A bio-mimicking robotic soft esophagus (RoSE) is developed as an in vitro testing device of endoprosthetic stents for dysphagia management. Endoprosthetic stent placement is an immediate and cost-effective therapy for dysphagia caused by malignant esophageal strictures from esophageal cancer. However, later stage complications, like stent migration, could weaken swallow efficacy in the esophagus. The stent radial force (RF) on the esophageal wall is pivotal in avoiding stent migration. Due to limited randomized controlled trials in patients, stent design and stenting guidelines remain incomplete. To address this knowledge deficit, we investigate RoSE by implanting two stents (A and B) of different radial stiffness characteristics, to measure stent RF and its effect on migration. Endoscopic manometry under peristalsis is also performed to study the impact of stenting and stent dysfunction on intra-bolus pressure signatures (IBPSs) and swallowing efficacy. Each implanted stent undergoes experiments with varied peristalsis velocity, wavelength, and bolus concentrations. The results show that stiffer stent B has a higher RF, whereas stent A maintains a lower RF profile due to lesser stiffness. High RF is necessary to minimize migration under prolonged peristaltic contractions in RoSE. For manometry, stent A slightly increases IBPS, but stiffer stent B significantly decreases IBPS, especially for higher-concentration boluses. If a stiffer stent buckles, it can reduce swallow efficacy and cause recurrent dysphagia. RoSE is therefore an innovative soft robotic platform for testing endoprosthetic stents and addressing clinical challenges in stent evaluation.

arXiv comment: Author accepted manuscript. 31 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Published in Soft Robotics (2021). Project page: https://bhattner143.github.io/rose-stent.github.io/

Ten-minute slide kit

Six slides is the whole talk: what was broken, what people tried, what these authors did, what the numbers say, where it falls over, and the sentence people should remember.

SLIDE 1

The problem

Swallowing is a complex but orderly physiological process transporting saliva or food from the mouth to the stomach. In an esophageal peristaltic transport of food bolus, the manometry recordings can be distributed into two intraluminal pressure segments. In the first segment, within the bolus fluid, the recorded pressure is solely due to the bolus hydrodynamic pressure, which is also known as the intrabolus pressure signature

SLIDE 2

What came before

Not recoverable from the parsed text. Read this section in the paper yourself.

SLIDE 3

The method

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SLIDE 4

What they measured

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SLIDE 5

Where it breaks

Palliative therapy for dysphagia caused due to benign and malignant esophageal strictures can be approached with the implantation of endoprosthetic stents.2, 8 The stenting can provide the patients with instant relief, and it can restore their oral nutrition requirements in one session (Fig. 1). However, adverse events like stent migration and various stent dysfunctionalities present vital obstacles to successful stent deployment in the esophagus.<sup>13</sup> Due to the less known relationship between the…

SLIDE 6

One-line takeaway

RoSE is an innovative soft robotic platform that is capable of testing various endoprosthetic stents, thereby offering a solution to many existing clinical challenges in the area of stent testing.

Assembled from the paper's own PDF, parsed with its layout intact so tables and equations survive, 86,865 characters of it, then split on the paper's own section headings. Extractive, not generated: every sentence here is lifted from the paper. Check it before you present it.

RoSE: A Robotic Soft Esophagus for Endoprosthetic Stent Testing

Abstract

Ten-minute slide kit

The problem

What came before

The method

What they measured

Where it breaks

One-line takeaway

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