Therapeutic Effect of Combined Oral Vitamin A and Corticosteroid Nasal Spray in Recovery of Smell Sensation in Covid_19 Patients

Abstract

Background: Inspired air is guided by the nose's structure to the olfactory epithelium. The turbulent airflow that delivers odorants to the olfactory epithelium more effectively in the nose is initiated by sniffing, marking the beginning of the physical detection of odorants. Post viral olfactory impairment specially associated with COVID-19 is a condition with limited established treatments, and despite various ongoing studies.Aim: To determine the impact of oral vitamin A combined with nasal steroid spray in the recovery of olfactory dysfunction (OD) in COVID-19 cases.Patients and Methods: This randomized controlled trial was done in Otolaryngology department, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University on 120 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection & have olfactory dysfunction. Results: Smell scores were significantly greater among study group I contrasted with controls after 3 weeks (8.25 ± 0.438 vs 7.45 ± 1.25) and 2 months (9.78 ± 0.261 vs 8.33 ± 1.48, P-value < 0.001). There was a significant increase in smell scores after patients discharge till 2 months in both groups, but the smell recovery was better in group I contrasted with group II (p-value