Abstract
Objectives: to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment
options for post-COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction.
Design: This is a retrospective cohort study.
Setting:
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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.