A robot has been developed that can help to treat babies with oesophageal atresia, it has been announced.
Created by engineers from the University of Sheffield’s Engineering Faculty, UK, and Boston’s Children Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, USA, the robot is implanted into the body to encourage tissue growth in babies with the condition.
Dr Dana Damian, from the Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield and her team from Boston Children’s Hospital say the prototype robotic implant is inspired by the Foker procedure but is less invasive and more accurate.
The small device is attached to the oesophagus by two rings and a motor stimulates the cells by gently pulling the tissue.
It uses two types of sensors, one to measure the tension in the tissue and another to measure tissue displacement. The implant is powered by a control unit which remains outside of the body, attached to a vest.
So far the device has been tested on pigs.
Dr Damian said: “Doctors have been performing the Foker procedure as they realised that tissue lengthening can be achieved by pulling on the tissue. However, it is unknown how much force should be applied to produce tissue lengthening.
“Although the technique is one of the best standards, sometimes the sutures surgeons attach to the oesophagus can tear – which can result in repetitive surgeries. Or scar tissue can form that can cause problems for the patient in the future.
“The robot we developed addresses this issue because it measures the force being applied and can be adapted at any time throughout the treatment. With it being implanted in the patient, it means they have – in effect – a doctor by their side all the time, monitoring them and changing their treatment when needed.”
Dr Damian said: “This is the first step in adaptive regenerative-based treatments of tissues. We have made a device that can provide long-term control of the tissue growth using on-board medical expertise.
“We further want to look at other tubular tissues, such as the intestine and the vascular system, to see if this sort of technology can be used to help with other conditions, such as Short Bowel Syndrome.”
This latest research is another step towards understanding how mechanical stimulation at the tissue level helps the cells multiply and how doctors can stimulate cells to grow using intuitive tools.
In vivo tissue regeneration with robotic implants Science Robotics 10 January 2018; doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.aaq0018 [abstract]
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