The gastrointestinal (GI) organs of the human body are responsible for transporting and extracting nutrients from food and drink, as well as excreting solid waste. Biomechanical experimentation of the GI organs provides insight into the mechanisms involved in their normal physiological functions, as well as understanding of how diseases can cause disruption to these. Additionally, experimental findings form the basis of all finite element (FE) modelling of these organs, which have a wide array of applications within medicine and engineering. This systematic review summarises the experimental studies that are currently in the literature (n = 247) and outlines the areas in which experimentation is lacking, highlighting what is still required in order to more fully understand the mechanical behaviour of the GI organs. These include (i) more human data, allowing for more accurate modelling for applications within medicine, (ii) an increase in time-dependent studies, and (iii) more sophisticated in vivo testing methods which allow for both the layer- and direction-dependent characterisation of the GI organs. The findings of this review can also be used to identify experimental data for the readers’ own constitutive or FE modelling as the experimental studies have been grouped in terms of organ (oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine or rectum), test condition (ex vivo or in vivo), number of directions studied (isotropic or anisotropic), species family (human, porcine, feline etc.), tissue condition (intact wall or layer-dependent) and the type of test performed (biaxial tension, inflation–extension, distension (pressure-diameter), etc.). Furthermore, the studies that investigated the time-dependent (viscoelastic) behaviour of the tissues have been presented.

人体胃肠（GI）器官负责运输和提取食物和饮料中的营养物质，以及排出固体废物。胃肠道器官的生物力学实验可以深入了解其正常生理功能的机制，并了解疾病如何对其造成破坏。此外，实验结果构成了这些器官所有有限元 (FE) 建模的基础，在医学和工程领域具有广泛的应用。本系统综述总结了目前文献中的实验研究（n = 247），并概述了实验缺乏的领域，强调了为了更全面地了解胃肠道器官的机械行为仍然需要做些什么。这些包括（i）更多的人类数据，允许在医学应用中进行更准确的建模，（ii）时间依赖性研究的增加，以及（iii）更复杂的体内测试方法，允许分层和方向-胃肠道器官的依赖性特征。本综述的结果还可用于确定读者自己的本构或有限元模型的实验数据，因为实验研究已按器官（食道、胃、小肠、大肠或直肠）、测试条件（离体或体内）、研究方向的数量（各向同性或各向异性）、物种家族（人类、猪、猫等）、组织状况（完整的壁或层相关）以及进行的测试类型（双轴张力、膨胀） – 延伸、扩张（压力-直径）等）。此外，还提出了研究组织的时间依赖性（粘弹性）行为的研究。