Abstract
Objectives: to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment options for post-COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction.
Design: This is a retrospective cohort study.
Setting: ……………………………………..
Participants : 120 patients between January 2020 and December 2022 with post-COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction (anosmia or hyposmia).
Main outcome measures: Initial smell scores and on weeks 1,2,3,4 of treatment regimens.
Results: 43.3% of patients were males and 56.6% were females aged from 18 to 62 years (median age was 38.5 years). 38 patients (36.3%) were hospitalized while 82 patients (68.3%) managed at home. There was a significant difference in the average time for complete recovery in group B was 25.7 ± 9.20 days and group C was 24.8± 6.67 days and group D was 23.5± 7.13 days compared to 28.97 ± 4.29 days in control group A (P = 0.02*) . There is no significant association between age, sex, place of management, severity of COVID-19 illness, obesity, and the duration of COVID-19 illness with smell scores and the duration of anosmia/hyposmia but there was a highly significant association with diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and asthma (P-Value=<0.001***) .
Conclusion: This study suggests that combining the usage of topical mometasone furoate or topical vitamin A or intranasal theophylline with olfactory training shortens the duration of post-COVID- 19 anosmia/hyposmia but offers no superiority regarding smell scores over olfactory training alone after 4 weeks.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, anosmia, olfaction, olfactory dysfunction.