Scholarly Review Ear, Nose & Throat Journal 2021, Vol. 0(0) 1–9 © The Author(s) 2021 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/01455613211048998 journals.sagepub.com/home/ear COVID-19 and anosmia: The story so far Xiangming Meng, BS 1 and Yuandan Pan, BS 2 Abstract Objectives: The pandemic has affected over 182 million coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases worldwide. Accu- mulated evidence indicates that anosmia is one of the significant characteristics of COVID-19 with a high prevalence. However, many aspects of COVID-19-induced anosmia are still far from being fully understood. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent developments in COVID-19-induced anosmia to increase awareness of the condition. Methods: A literature search was carried out using the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus. We reviewed the latest literature on COVID- 19-induced anosmia, including mechanisms of pathogenesis, olfactory testing, anosmia as predictive tool, pathological ex- aminations, imaging findings, affected factors, co-existing diseases, treatments, prognosis, hypothesis theories, and future directions. Results: The possible pathogenesis of COVID-19-induced anosmia may involve inflammation of the olfactory clefts and damage to the olfactory epithelium or olfactory central nervous system by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The D614G spike variant may also play a role in the increased number of anosmia patients. Anosmia may also be an essential indicator of COVID-19 spread and an early indicator of the effectiveness of political decisions. The occurrence and development of COVID-19-induced anosmia may be influenced by smoking behaviors and underlying diseases such as type 2 diabetes, gastroesophageal disorders, and rhinitis. Most patients with COVID-19-induced anosmia can fully or partially recover their olfactory function for varying durations. COVID-19-induced anosmia can be treated with various approaches such as glucocorticoids and olfactory training. Conclusion: Anosmia is one of the main features of COVID-19 and the underlying disease of the patient may also influence its occurrence and development. The possible pathogenesis of COVID-19-induced anosmia is very complicated, which may involve inflammation of the olfactory clefts and damage to the olfactory epithelium or olfactory central nervous system. Keywords COVID-19, anosmia, olfactory dysfunction, SARS-CoV-2, smell, olfactory epithelium, olfactory bulb Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging in- fectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syn- drome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and characterized by fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea. 1 The COVID pandemic has wreaked havoc on many countries around the world. As of July 2, 2021, over 182 million COVID-19 cases and over 3.95 million deaths have been reported cumulatively globally. 2 As of June 30, 2021, a total of 2,950,104,812 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. 2 Although large-scale vacci- nation is speeding up, many new SARS-CoV-2 variants threatening to circumvent the vaccines and existing natural immunity will continue to affect the COVID-19 pandemic. 3 Anosmia refers to the loss of olfactory function (OF), and its common causes include nasal disorders, head trauma, and Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 1 Department of Otolaryngology, Wuxi Huishan District People’s Hospital, Wuxi, P.R. China 2 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Wuxi Huishan District People’s Hospital, Wuxi, P.R. China Corresponding Author: Xiangming Meng, Department of Otolaryngology, Wuxi Huishan District People’s Hospital, 2 Zhanqian North Road, Luoshe Town, Huishan District, Wuxi 214187, P.R. China. Email: [email protected]
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Related Documents
![Anosmia and ageusia: common findings in COVID‐19 patients and ageusia... · Anosmia has already been reported in the course of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) [2] and other](https://static.cupdf.com/doc/110x72/5f5db0cfe6b3ba6b26757b86/anosmia-and-ageusia-common-findings-in-covida19-and-ageusia-anosmia-has.jpg)
