Impact Assessment of Smell and Taste Disorders on Quality of Life in Thais Using the SF-36 Health Survey (Thai version)

Objective: Smell and taste defects adversely affect both physical and mental health. The Short Form (SF)-36 Health Survey is a widely used tool for the quality of life (QoL) assessment. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of smell and taste disorders on QoL in Thais using the SF-36 Health Survey (Thai version). Methods: This retrospective chart review included the patients with smell and taste disorders that attended our clinic during 2011 to 2016. Smell ability was evaluated by phenyl ethyl alcohol odor detection threshold, and smell discrimination and identification tests. Taste ability was evaluated by electrogustometry, regional testing, and modified taste strips. SF-36 was used to assess QoL. Results: Three hundred fifty-five patients were included in the final analysis. The mean age was 50.8±15.5 years, and 64.2% were female. Most patients (78.59%) had smell disorder only, 15.78% had taste disorder only, and 5.63% had both disorders. Specific to taste disorders, QoL was significantly lower in the patient group than in healthy population for the following 6 domains: physical function, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, and role-emotional (all p<0.05). Conclusion: The four major causes of smell and taste disorders are nasal/sinonasal diseases, idiopathic causes, post-URI, and head trauma. Women are more often affected than men. Although smell and taste disorders both adversely affect physical and mental health, the taste disorders cause more adverse effect. An assessment tool that is specific to smell and taste disorders may facilitate more detailed elucidation of the effect of these conditions on QoL

Radiofrequency Inferior Turbinate Reduction Improves Smell Ability of Patients with Chronic Rhinitis and Inferior Turbinate Hypertrophy

Radiofrequency inferior turbinate reduction (RFITR) of inferior turbinate hypertrophy (ITH) is an effective way to treat patients with intractable nasal mucosal obstruction. The objective of this study was to assess smell ability, nasal symptoms, inferior turbinate grading (ITG), peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF) of patients with chronic rhinitis (CR), and ITH before and after RFITR. Patients with CR and ITH, aged 18–60 years, who underwent RFITR, were prospectively recruited. Smell ability (measured by smell detection threshold [SDT]), visual analog scale (VAS) of nasal symptoms, ITG, and PNIF before and 6–10 weeks after RFITR were compared. Forty-eight subjects were included. All nasal symptoms were significantly decreased after RFITR. After surgery, SDT (tested by phenyl ethyl alcohol) was worsened in 7 patients (14.6%), improved in 8 patients (16.7%), and did not change in 33 patients (68.7%). SDT after RFITR of six patients in the worsened SDT group were still within normal range (> −6.5). There was only one patient whose SDT changed from normosmia to mild hyposmia (–7.25 to −5.38). In the improved SDT group, two of eight patients had obviously better SDT after RFITR, which changed from moderate hyposmia to normosmia (–3.65 to −10; −3.73 to −10), whereas six of eight patients had little better SDT after RFITR. RFITR also significantly reduced ITG and improved PNIF. In conclusion, the treatment of patients with CR and ITH with RFITR significantly improved PNIF, ITG, and nasal symptoms assessed by VAS, although SDT after RFITR could be the same or improved or worsened