Mechanical Simulator of the Small Intestine for In-Vitro Practice with Endoscopic Devices

Abstract

- The small intestine (SI) is a mechanically active tube-like organ that actuates peristaltic constriction motion. The motion assists capsule endoscopy products to passively travel along the SI tract. The goal of the present study was to design a mechanical simulator of the small intestine. Having such a simulator would allow effective testing of new capsule endoscopic devices, as well as offline practice with endoscopic and other devices. The simulator, loaded with ex-vivo swine SI, was functionally validated using two ingestible capsule products: PillCam® SB3 and SmartPill® (Given Imaging, Ltd.). Excellent agreement was found in comparison to in-vivo recordings, showing the great potential of the simulator.