Mueller Christian A, Hummel Thomas
J Med Case Rep. 2009 Sep 16;3:9283. doi: 10.4076/1752-1947-3-9283.
Olfactory loss due to head trauma is a common condition. Depending on the severity of the head trauma, anosmia might occur in up to 30% of patients. The period of time until recovery has been reported to be a couple of months in most cases. However, recovery from post-traumatic olfactory loss might occur much later. We present a rare case of recovery from anosmia nine years after the initial trauma.
We report the case of a 54-year-old Caucasian man who suffered complete anosmia from a severe car accident. Smell function as well as flavor perception during eating and drinking were also completely lost. After nine years, the patient had his first olfactory impressions, with his sense of smell gradually improving over a period of three years. We confirmed recovery of olfactory function using psychophysical and electrophysiological techniques.
In most cases, recovery of smell function occurs relatively soon after the head trauma and seems to rarely occur more than two years after the incident. However, patients should be informed that there is a small chance of recovery a long time after the trauma.
因头部外伤导致嗅觉丧失是一种常见情况。根据头部外伤的严重程度，高达30%的患者可能会出现嗅觉丧失。据报道，在大多数情况下，恢复时间为几个月。然而，创伤后嗅觉丧失的恢复可能会在很久之后才发生。我们报告一例罕见病例，患者在初次创伤九年后嗅觉恢复。
我们报告一名54岁的白人男性病例，他因严重车祸导致完全性嗅觉丧失。饮食时的嗅觉功能以及味觉感知也完全丧失。九年后，患者首次有了嗅觉印象，其嗅觉在三年时间里逐渐改善。我们使用心理物理学和电生理技术证实了嗅觉功能的恢复。
在大多数情况下，嗅觉功能在头部外伤后相对较快恢复，且似乎很少在事件发生两年后恢复。然而，应告知患者，外伤后很长时间仍有小概率恢复。
