Persisting anosmia after COVID-19 infection: The continuing mystery

Sherinsha S, Archana S, Rajesh R

Pdf Page Numbers :- 134-137

Sherinsha S¹, Archana S¹ and Rajesh R^1,*

¹Department of ENT, Government T D Medical College, Vandanam, Alappuzha, Kerala 688005, India

*Corresponding Author: Dr. R. Rajesh, Assistant Professor, Department of ENT, Government T D Medical College, Vandanam, Alappuzha, Kerala 688005, India. Email: drrrajeshent@gmail.com

Received 25 January 2024; Revised 11 March 2024; Accepted 18 March 2024; Published 28 March 2024

Citation: Sherinsha S, Archana S, Rajesh R. Persisting anosmia after COVID-19 infection: The continuing mystery. J Med Sci Res. 2024; 12(2):134-137. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17727/JMSR.2024/12-25

Copyright: © 2024 Sherinsha S et al. Published by KIMS Foundation and Research Center. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Abstract

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on global health-care systems and economic stability. Smell and taste dysfunction is now recognized as one of the cardinal symptoms of COVID-19. Since the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19 infection varies from place to place, this study was done to find out the prevalence of olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19 infection, and its persistence on follow-up in a tertiary care centre situated in Alappuzha (South India).

Methods: The present study was a tertiary hospital based descriptive study. 150 patients with COVID-19 Infection who presented to the centre during a period of 6 months were selected, and their detailed history, clinical findings and investigation results were recorded in a proforma. Follow-up of the patients was done for a period of 2 years.

Results: Among the 150 COVID-19 patients 114 (76%) of them had olfactory dysfunction. There were no significant difference in the gender or age distribution, for olfactory dysfunction. Among those with olfactory dysfunction, 88 patients (77.2%) had a faster recovery within 2 weeks. On follow-up, there was persistence of olfactory dysfunction in 2 patients even after 2 years.

Conclusion: The prevalence of olfactory dysfunction seen among COVID-19 patients was much more than that described in studies from other places. The persistence of olfactory dysfunction for a long period in some patients is a matter that needs further research to bring out the causative factors.

Keywords: COVID-19; Olfactory dysfunction; anosmia; prevalence; persistence