New treatment may help recover loss of smell from COVID, study says
BOSTON - A new study finds some patients who have a persistent loss of smell after COVID-19 may benefit from an experimental treatment.
Loss of smell has been a common symptom of COVID-19, especially with earlier variants.
While most patients recover their sense of smell within a few weeks, for some, it has lasted months or even years, negatively impacting their taste, appetite, and quality of life.
However, Jefferson Health in Philadelphia researchers have found that a nerve block could help bring it back.
They took patients who had lost their ability to smell normally for at least six months post-COVID and injected both an anesthetic and a steroid into a group of nerves at the base of the neck.
They found that nearly 60% of them reported significant improvement in their symptoms one week later.
Of those, more than 80% reported even greater improvement at one month.
While the nerve block didn't work for everyone, they say at least this treatment is showing promise where many others have failed.