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Steroid‐Dependent Anosmia
Author(s) -
Stevens Michael H.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1097/00005537-200102000-00002
Subject(s) - medicine , anosmia , nasal polyps , aspirin , endoscopic sinus surgery , olfaction , surgery , anesthesia , disease , covid-19 , neuroscience , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biology
Objective To document the response to steroids in patients remaining anosmic following endoscopic nasal and sinus polypectomy. Study Design A prospective study of 24 patients with nasal and sinus polyps who were anosmic prior to endoscopic nasal and sinus surgery. Those who remained anosmic after surgery were treated with steroids. Most patients had asthma, allergic rhinitis, or both. A few had aspirin sensitivity. Methods All 24 patients had testing of their sense of smell before and after surgery. Those who remained anosmic postoperatively were first treated with topical nasal and then oral steroids and then tested again. Results Twelve of the 24 remained anosmic after surgery and were found to be unresponsive to nasal steroids, but oral steroids were found to restore the sense of smell to normal in most patients. Few patients continued to take the medication for long periods of time mainly because of a fear of side effects. Recent studies have suggested the role of systemic steroids in olfactory secretion, which may explain the mechanism for this response. Conclusion Patients who remain anosmic after the removal of nasal and sinus polyps can be treated with oral steroids resulting in improvement of their sense of smell. Further research is needed on a molecular level to determine the reason for this and also why oral but not nasal steroids are helpful in these patients.