Phantosmia with COVID-19 Related Olfactory Dysfunction: Report of Nine Case

Akif İşlek; Mustafa Koray Balcı

doi:10.1007/s12070-021-02505-z

Phantosmia with COVID-19 Related Olfactory Dysfunction: Report of Nine Case

Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2022 Oct;74(Suppl 2):2891-2893. doi: 10.1007/s12070-021-02505-z. Epub 2021 Mar 12.

Authors

Akif İşlek¹, Mustafa Koray Balcı²

Affiliations

¹ Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Clinic, Nusaybin State Hospital, Adar Street, 10/A-10 , Nusaybin, Mardin Turkey.
² Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Clinic, Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, Katip Celebi University, İzmir, Turkey.

Abstract

Phantosmia has been described as a sense of smell without a true stimulating odor and not been reported with COVID-19 disease. Nine patients admitted to Ear Nose Throat (ENT) Clinic with complaints of a phantom smell sense after an average of 33.5 ± 9.5 days after the initial PCR diagnosis. According to the Sniffin 'Sticks test, phantosmia was associated with objective hyposmia in three patients with the persistent phantom smell, and other six patients were detected normosmic. Phantosmia or olfactory hallucinations have not been previously associated with COVID-19 disease. Additionally, COVID-19 related phantosmia showed different characteristics according to described in the literature.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12070-021-02505-z.

Keywords: COVID-19; Olfactory hallucinations; Phantosmia; Smell sensation.