Scientists Explore Ear Nerve Stimulation as Potential Treatment for Uncontrolled Hypertension - Video

A small device that delivers gentle electrical pulses through the ear may offer a new approach to managing difficult-to-control high blood pressure. A clinical trial suggests that ear nerve stimulation is safe, well tolerated and suitable for home use, although its effectiveness in lowering blood pressure remains uncertain.

Published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension, the SCRATCH-HTN trial, led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, investigated whether non-invasive electrical stimulation could help patients whose blood pressure remained elevated despite medication.

The experimental technique, known as transcutaneous autonomic neuromodulation (tAN), works by stimulating nerves in the ear that communicate with the autonomic nervous system, which regulates functions including heart rate and blood pressure.

Researchers enrolled 63 adults with uncontrolled hypertension who were taking at least one blood pressure-lowering medication.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either active electrical stimulation or a sham treatment using a similar device.

The device used two small clips placed on the tragus, a cartilage structure near the ear canal. Participants used it for 30 minutes daily during the first two weeks, followed by weekly sessions for another 10 weeks.

The findings revealed that the treatment was generally safe and well tolerated, with most participants following the prescribed schedule.

However, researchers found no statistically significant difference in blood pressure reduction between the active treatment and sham groups across the overall study population.

Interestingly, a planned subgroup analysis showed greater blood pressure reductions among participants with more severe hypertension who received active stimulation.

Researchers suggested that this approach might benefit certain patients with particularly difficult-to-control blood pressure.

However, the small sample size means these findings require confirmation in larger clinical trials.

REFERENCE: Ajay Gupta, David Collier, James Steckelmacher, Jane Field, George Collett, Olivier Zongo, Mital Patel, Manish Saxena, Annastazia Learoyd, Amrita Ahluwalia, and Peter Sever on behalf of SCRATCH Trial Investigators . Safety, Acceptability and Efficacy of Noninvasive Transcutaneous-Autonomic Neuromodulation in Uncontrolled Hypertension. Hypertension, DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.126.27847