{"doi":"10.18700/jnc.250014","title":"Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation reduces hospital cost of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage management: secondary analysis of the NAVSaH trial","abstract":"Background: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) accounts for only 5% of strokes in the United States but imposes substantial economic burdens on healthcare systems, with hospitalization costs exceeding $90,000 per patient. This study evaluated the economic implications of incorporating transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) into standard aSAH management.Methods: This was a secondary analysis of the Non-invasive Auricular Vagus nerve stimulation for Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (NAVSaH) trial, a single-center trial enrolling adult patients with spontaneous SAH, randomized 1:1 to receive either taVNS or sham stimulation. Cost data were sourced from institutional accounting databases. The primary economic outcomes included total hospitalization costs, resource utilization across service lines, and 30-day readmission rates. Cost and utilization analyses were stratified by Hunt and Hess grades and compared between the treatment arms.Results: The taVNS group (n=13) had lower 30-day hospitalization costs than the sham group (n=14) ($82,632 vs. $103,998, P=0.003), representing a 20.54% reduction. Resource utilization was lower in the taVNS than the sham group for multiple service areas, including respiratory (17.00 vs. 64.60 charges per patient, P=0.003), laboratory (112.23 vs. 140.36 charges per patient, P<0.001), and pharmacy services (266.54 vs 313.29 charges per patient, P=0.004). Additionally, the taVNS group had lower 30-day readmission rates (7.7% vs. 28.6%) and readmission costs ($2,716 vs. $13,085).Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence that taVNS reduces hospital costs and service utilization in patients with aSAH. Multicenter validation is warranted; however, these findings suggest that taVNS offers a novel strategy for improving resource utilization and costs in critical care settings.","journal":"Journal of Neurocritical Care","year":2025,"id":587594,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9506,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1503263,"name":"Karan Joseph","orcid":"0000-0001-9583-9957","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1503631,"name":"Matthew Greever","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1503632,"name":"Jason Gagné","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1503264,"name":"Alan Dow","orcid":"0000-0002-9004-7528","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1503265,"name":"Andrew Pierce","orcid":"0000-0001-8577-0589","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":873139,"name":"Mahendra Gupta","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1274839,"name":"Anna L. Huguenard","orcid":"0000-0002-8625-4698","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1358814,"name":"Eric C Leuthardt","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1068802,"name":"Michael Olufawo","orcid":"0009-0006-7214-0207","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:59:39.958043Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}