Maxillofacial Surgery Operative Unit, University Hospital of Sassari, Sassari, Italy; Biomedical Science Department, PhD School of Biomedical Science, University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy.
King's College, London, United Kingdom.
Rhinology. 2021 Feb 1;59(1):21-25. doi: 10.4193/Rhin20.515.
The growing number of COVID-19 patients with long-lasting olfactory disorders makes it necessary to identify ef- fective treatments that enhance the spontaneous recovery of olfactory function.
Multicentre randomised case-control study that involved 18 patients with COVID-19 related anosmia or severe hyposmia for more than 30 days. Nine patients were prescribed systemic prednisone and nasal irrigation with betamethasone, ambroxol and rinazine for 15 days. The other 9, untreated, patients were used as controls. The olfactory function was evaluated with CCCRC test at 20 and 40 days from the first evaluation.
In the control group, a median olfactory score of 20 (IQR 30) was detected at baseline. At the 20-day control there was no significant improvement in olfactory function. The improvement in olfactory performance became significant at the 40-day follow-up compared to baseline scores [60 (IQR 60) versus 20 (IQR 30)]. In the treatment group, patients had a mean olfactory score of 10 (IQR 15) at initial control. At the 20-day control, a significant im-provement in the olfactory scores, compared to the baseline, was detected [70 (IQR 40) versus 10 (IQR 15)]. Olfactory function further improved at 40 days [median score 90 (IQR 50)]. Patients in the treatment group reported significantly higher improvements of the olfactory scores than the controls at both the 20-day [40 (IQR 45) versus 10 (IQR 15)] and 40-day [60 (IQR 40) versus 30 (IQR 25)] evaluations.
Based on the results of this study, the mix of drugs including steroids could represent a useful specific therapy to reduce the prevalence of this long-term morbidity.
越来越多的 COVID-19 患者出现持久的嗅觉障碍，因此有必要确定有效的治疗方法来促进嗅觉功能的自发恢复。
这是一项多中心随机病例对照研究，共纳入 18 例 COVID-19 相关嗅觉丧失或严重嗅觉减退超过 30 天的患者。9 例患者接受全身泼尼松治疗，并进行鼻腔冲洗，药物包括倍他米松、氨溴索和利奈唑胺，疗程为 15 天。另外 9 例未接受治疗的患者作为对照组。在首次评估后的第 20 和 40 天使用 CCCRC 测试评估嗅觉功能。
在对照组中，基线时嗅觉评分中位数为 20（IQR 30）。在第 20 天的对照中，嗅觉功能没有明显改善。与基线评分相比，在第 40 天的随访中，嗅觉功能的改善具有显著意义[60（IQR 60）与 20（IQR 30）]。在治疗组中，患者在初始对照时的平均嗅觉评分为 10（IQR 15）。在第 20 天的对照中，与基线相比，嗅觉评分显著改善[70（IQR 40）与 10（IQR 15）]。在第 40 天，嗅觉功能进一步改善[中位数评分 90（IQR 50）]。与对照组相比，治疗组在第 20 天[40（IQR 45）与 10（IQR 15）]和第 40 天[60（IQR 40）与 30（IQR 25）]的评估中，嗅觉评分的改善更为显著。
基于这项研究的结果，包含类固醇的药物混合治疗可能代表一种有用的特定治疗方法，可以降低这种长期发病率。
