Abstract
There have been demands for improving the level of activity of daily life for the patients with serious esophageal cancer. We have been developing an artificial esophagus by using Ni-Ti shape memory alloy fiber for those patients. The total installation of the device could replay the natural form of food delivery from the mouth to the stomach. In this study, we paused on the interaction control of the deglutition artificial esophagus motion by the natural trigger of the deglutition. Firstly, we made a synchronization system for swallowing required by the sensing of the throat skin acceleration. Then, we examined the sensing activity of swallowing motion detection. We performed an animal experiment to measure the surface motion caused by the deglutition using the accelerometry sensor attached to the goat throat. Secondly, we implemented an additional wireless formation in the sensing system in order to achieve the transcutaneous motion synchronization less invasively. As a result, the system developed in this study exhibited the capability of sensing by the accelerometry of swallowing motion for the sophisticated functional design for a totally implantable artificial esophagus.
