EdemaFlex: textile-based soft-robotic platform toward personalized hand edema therapy

Hand edema hinders mobility and quality of life, yet prevailing solutions—manual lymphatic drainage or bulky pneumatic devices—are costly, clinic-bound, and rarely personalized. We introduce EdemaFlex, a textile-integrated soft-robotic platform that generates participant-specific devices; here, we demonstrate a tubular jacquard-knit glove whose embedded shape-memory-alloy actuators deliver programmable distal-to-proximal compression. The actuators reach a therapeutic pressure of 20–30 mmHg within 2–3 s and provide distal-to-proximal sequential compression for multiple 30 min sessions. In a seven-participant “home-based study,” the EdemaFlex glove proved to be accessible for unsupervised use and feasible as a tool to reduce swelling, ensuring safety: hand volume decreased by up to 25%, digit and Figure-of-Eight circumferences by up to 9.3% and 4.7%, range of motion increased up to 50%, and dexterity (Box-and-Block test) improved by 8–150%. The EdemaFlex System offers a textile-based, soft-robotic platform for personalized edema therapy.