Olfactory function following open rhinoplasty: A 6-month follow-up study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients undergoing any type of nasal surgery may experience degrees of postoperative olfactory dysfunction. We sought to investigate "when" the olfactory function recovers to its preoperative levels.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this cohort design, 40 of 65 esthetic open rhinoplasty candidates with equal gender distribution, who met the inclusion criteria, were assessed for their olfactory function using the Smell Identification Test (SIT) with 40 familiar odors in sniffing bottles. All the patients were evaluated for the SIT scores preoperatively and postoperatively (at week 1, week 6, and month 6).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At postoperative week one, 87.5% of the patients had anosmia, and the rest exhibited at least moderate levels of hyposmia. The anosmia, which was the dominant pattern at postoperative week 1, resolved and converted to various levels of hyposmia, so that no one at postoperative week 6 showed any such complain. At postoperative week six, 85% of the subjects experienced degrees of hyposmia, almost all being mild to moderate. At postoperative six month, the olfactory function had already reverted to the preoperative levels: no anosmia or moderate to severe hyposmia. A repeated ANOVA was indicative of significant differences in the olfactory function at the different time points. According to our post hoc Benfronney, the preoperative scores had a significant difference with those at postoperative week 1, week 6, but not with the ones at month 6.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Esthetic open rhinoplasty may be accompanied by some degrees of postoperative olfactory dysfunction. Patients need a time interval of 6 weeks to 6 months to fully recover their baseline olfactory function.</p

A study about the frequency of taste disorders.

Although 5% of the general population exhibit a functional anosmia, little is known about the frequency of gustatory disorders. Whenever taste function has been tested within large sociodemographic studies, so far only short test versions were applied making the interpretation difficult. Using two psychophysical taste tests, the validated "taste strips" and suprathreshold taste solutions of the four basic tastes sweet, sour, salty and bitter we investigated 761 healthy subjects within the age range of 5-89 years. Prior to testing, all subjects rated their taste function. According to testing with the taste strips, 5.3% scored below the result considered as hypogeusia. All four taste sprays were correctly identified by 82.3% of all subjects. Results of the two taste tests correlated positively (r = 0.33, p > 0.001), and there was a significant negative correlation between age and test results. However, we never observed complete ageusia. Misinterpretations of tastes were surprisingly common. In summary, hypogeusia was present in 5% while complete ageusia seems to be very rare, in contrast to misinterpretations of tastes