Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, University of California San Diego, 200 West Arbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92103, United States.
Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, United States.
Med Hypotheses. 2020 Aug;141:109757. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109757. Epub 2020 Apr 23.
Patients with acute olfactory disorders typically present to the otolaryngologist with both acute hyposmia and less often with anosmia. With the onset of COVID-19 we have noticed an increase in the number of patients who have presented with new onset of complete smell loss to the senior author's practice in Tehran, Iran. This anosmia and the frequency with which patients present is highly unusual. Coronaviruses have been known to cause common cold symptoms. COVID-19 infections have been described as causing more severe respiratory infections and the symptoms reported by authors from Wuhan, China have not specifically included anosmia. We describe patients who have presented during a two-week period of the COVID-19 pandemic with complete loss of sense of smell. Most had either no symptoms or mild respiratory symptoms. Many had a normal otolaryngologic exam. A relationship between COVID-19 and anosmia should be considered during the pandemic. We hypothesize that the mechanism of injury is similar to that of other coronavirus infections that cause central and peripheral neurologic deficits.
患有急性嗅觉障碍的患者通常会同时出现嗅觉减退和不太常见的嗅觉丧失，到耳鼻喉科医生处就诊。随着 COVID-19 的爆发，我们注意到伊朗德黑兰的资深作者在工作中遇到越来越多的新发完全嗅觉丧失的患者。这种嗅觉丧失以及患者出现的频率非常不寻常。冠状病毒已知会引起普通感冒症状。COVID-19 感染已被描述为引起更严重的呼吸道感染，而来自中国武汉的作者所报告的症状并未特别包括嗅觉丧失。我们描述了在 COVID-19 大流行期间两周内出现完全嗅觉丧失的患者。大多数患者没有任何症状或仅有轻微的呼吸道症状。许多患者的耳鼻喉科检查正常。在大流行期间应考虑 COVID-19 与嗅觉丧失之间的关系。我们假设损伤的机制类似于导致中枢和周围神经功能缺损的其他冠状病毒感染。
