Nora Tarek Ibrahim¹*, Hossam Attia Mohammed¹, Hazem Naguib Awad¹, Mohammed Elsayed¹ and Ahmed Elshehawy²

¹Head of ENT Department, Consultant of Otorhinolaryngology at Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt
²Otorhinolaryngology specialist at Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt

*Corresponding Author: Nora Tarek Ibrahim, Head of ENT Department, Consultant of Otorhinolaryngology at Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.

Received: February 17, 2022; Published: March 09, 2022

Abstract

Introduction: The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and quickly spread to 213 countries and territories. As we race to get a better understanding of its pathology and how to manage it, a few trends have been noticed. Among these is the anecdotal finding of patients reporting sudden loss of smell and taste as one of the preliminary, and sometimes only, symptom

Aim: This study aims to describe the characteristics of patients that present with new onset anosmia during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Sample will target patients that present to the Emergency COVID-19 clinic at Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital. The study data will be collected by data collection forms filled out by the researchers. All patients presenting to the covid-19 Emergency clinic with new onset anosmia within a two-month period.

Results: Out of total 81 participants from whom data was collected, 15 cases had diminished sense of smell as preliminary symptom, and 6 cases had only that at time of swab., 38.5% of all positive patients had their olfactory function affected as preliminary symptom. Thus, we can say that almost one in three positive patients displays a diminished sense of smell as a preliminary symptom.

The mean duration of anosmia was 9.4 ± 10.4 days in cases with anosmia who were confirmed by PCR to be positive, as compared to 10.74 ± 9.39 in cases with anosmia who showed negative results; without significant difference (P = 0.660). Duration was < 7 days for 55% (11/20), 7-14 days for 20% (4/20), and > 14 days for 25% (5/20).

Conclusion: While anosmia has been proven to be an anecdotal finding in COVID-19 positive patients, the presence of new onset anosmia in patients during the COVID-19 era cannot be fully explained by the SARS- CoV-2 virus. However, as healthcare workers, wearing full PPE while dealing with anosmia patients is recommended, as anosmia could be a preliminary symptom and this could prevent infection.

Keywords: Anosmia; COVID-19; SARS-CoV2

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Citation

Citation: Nora Tarek Ibrahim., et al. “New-onset Anosmia Among COVID-19 Suspected Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Cairo, Egypt”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 6.4 (2022): 35-45.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Agron Nora Tarek Ibrahim., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.