An esophageal simulator with cardiothoracic pressure signals

Project Overview

Eso technologies is currently developing a new, less invasive device to replace the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC). The PAC measures cardiac pressures and heart conditions during surgery. The PAC, despite it’s benefits, caused ~40000 heart related complications in patients last year. Eso tech’s new device will monitor the heart and respiratory function via the esophagus. The device is still in development and testing has been performed on patients, however, the device is limited to 40 patient tests by the FDA. Our goal is to design an esophageal simulator that minimizes patient interaction while allowing quicker testing and refinement of the device. Our device needs to be able to replicate the dynamic pressure from the heart and lungs as well as the static pressure of the esophagus.