logo
Patients have sense of smell restored thanks to surgery to treat long Covid

Patients have sense of smell restored thanks to surgery to treat long Covid

Yahoo07-03-2025

People who lost their sense of smell, and accompanying taste, because of long Covid, have had it restored thanks to nasal surgery.
Experts at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) used a technique for correcting blocked nasal passages on patients who have suffered a profound loss of smell after Covid infection.
Researchers believe between 50,000 and 100,000 people in the UK are suffering the effects of smell loss because of long Covid.
One 27-year-old patient in the new UCLH study has had her sense of smell return almost to normal and is now expanding the range of foods she can eat.
All patients taking part in the research had an impaired sense of smell for longer than two years and had failed on other treatments, such as smell training and corticosteroids.
The operation, known as functional septorhinoplasty (fSRP), is typically used to correct any deviation of the nasal septum, increasing the size of nasal passageways.
This increases the airflow into the olfactory region, at the roof of the nasal cavity, which controls smell.
The team behind the new study said the surgery allows an increased amount of odorants (chemical compounds that have a smell) to reach the roof of the nose, where sense of smell is located.
They believe increasing the delivery of odorants to this area 'kick starts' smell recovery in patients who have lost their sense of smell to long Covid.
Penelope Newman, 27, from south London, took part in the trial. Her results have been published in the journal Facial Plastic Surgery.
She said: 'Before I had the surgery on my nose, I had begun to accept that I would probably never be able to smell or taste things the way I used to.
'It seemed dire, and after around two and a half years of parosmia (impaired sense of smell), I had totally changed my lifestyle.
'For those who have experienced this, they will know how isolating it can be.
'The food I could cook and eat was so limited, and I couldn't go out to restaurants as I would feel unwell.
'Getting something as drastic as surgery was a risk I was willing to take on the small chance it might help.
'Since the surgery, I have begun to enjoy food and smells the same way I used to.
'I can now cook and eat garlic and onions and people can cook for me too. I can go out to eat with my friends and family.
'My taste and smell have almost returned to normal. I'm not sure if it will ever fully return as I still have a small reduction in it, but I am so glad that I am no longer as isolated as I once was.
'I will never take my senses for granted ever again.'
The new research was led by Professor Peter Andrews, senior consultant surgeon in rhinology and facial plastic surgery, and Alfonso Luca Pendolino, then senior rhinology fellow at UCLH.
It included 25 long Covid patients, with 12 of the patients undergoing fSRP, while the control group of 13 patients continued with smell training – sniffing the same scents repeatedly – for the study.
Sense of smell was measured over the duration of the study by using the Sniffin' Sticks test, a widely-used clinical test to detect smell.
All patients who had fSRP reported an improved sense of smell compared with none of the patients in the sniff test group, where 40% actually reported a worsening sense of smell.
The experts said the surgery was particularly good at increasing odour sensitivity by lowering the odour threshold – the minimal concentration of an odour a person can actually smell – which is specifically noted in long Covid patients with an impaired sense of smell.
Prof Andrews told the PA news agency that sense of smell 'is bit like a muscle', adding: 'The more you use it, the stronger it is. Just like a muscle.'
He added: 'If you're breathing normally through your nose, you can just feel the air moving in the lower part of the nose, and you probably don't even notice it, but when you sniff, you can feel the air going up into the olfactory area, the roof of the nose.
'What this operation does is it increases that airway.'
The surgery increases the airway by about 30%, so air flow also increases by about 30%.
Prof Andrews added: 'There's a big group of patients who are still suffering with this problem of smell dysfunction following Covid infection three or four years ago.
'This study has shown impressive results – if we apply the principle of increasing the nasal or olfactory airway, we're getting a reactivation of the sense of smell and then an improvement of the sense of smell.
'With long Covid anosmia you've got patients, fundamentally, who can't smell or smell very poorly, so we need to somehow wake them up.
'And this operation sort of does that. It sort of wakes up the olfactory mucosa and then it builds on it through the increased nasal airway – hitting that area, more odorants hitting that area – and we're getting this impressive recovery in the majority of the patients. All patients we operated on improved.'
Prof Andrews said persistent Covid anosmia is still a problem for an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people.
'It's the sort of forgotten group of people, to be honest,' he said.
'If you lose your sense of smell it has incredible consequences. It's not until you've lost your sense of smell (that you realise) how it affects your taste, how it affects your daily living.'
As a follow-up, researchers are now looking at the brain changes that happen following fSRP, which could explain its long-term benefits.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Vaccine board purge stokes talk of CDC alternatives
Vaccine board purge stokes talk of CDC alternatives

Axios

time39 minutes ago

  • Axios

Vaccine board purge stokes talk of CDC alternatives

By gutting the expert panel that's advised the government on vaccine policy for more than 60 years, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned the condemnation of virtually every medical society, as well as former public health officials and local practitioners. What became immediately clear is that no outside group can immediately step in and fill the vacuum if the public won't trust the reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The big picture: The distress and lack of organization apparent in health circles on Tuesday was a sign that a new independent body that could act as a "shadow CDC" to truth-squad the Trump administration isn't close to materializing. "We are clearly working on it and we think it's very important, but I don't think anyone has an answer yet," said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, who's behind one ad hoc effort. "Right now, we're in such uncharted territory." The medical establishment has floated ideas such as state-appointed boards or medical specialty associations serving as clearinghouses for information on vaccine safety and efficacy for clinicians. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) during the pandemic created a state entity to review the safety of federally approved COVID-19 vaccines before distributing them to the public. But it would be difficult to replicate the professional clout of ACIP, whose recommendations can influence whether insurers cover vaccines. That would leave Kennedy's handpicked successors controlling the narrative — a prospect many researchers and physicians think will bring a radical departure from ACIP's evidence-based deliberations on safety and efficacy. Friction point: Kennedy and other Trump health officials' assertions that ACIP has been a rubber stamp for vaccines have infuriated public health officials, who say the physicians, infectious disease experts and researchers constituted a vital body of nongovernmental health leaders who took their jobs seriously. Panel members were carefully vetted for conflicts and had their professional credentials scrutinized. Discussions took place in a high-profile public forum that would be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate. "Many of us can provide a read of the science, and we can convene formally or informally to create consensus around vaccine recommendations," said Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health. "But I suspect that it won't be sufficient for insurers, for Medicaid, for the Vaccines for Children program, and it's unclear how pediatricians and primary care physicians and pharmacies across the country are going to be able to respond," she said. The other side: Kennedy wrote on X Tuesday night that he would announce new ACIP members in the coming days. "None of these individuals will be ideological anti-vaxxers. They will be highly credentialed physicians and scientists," Kennedy wrote. He added he would detail instances of "historical corruption at ACIP to help the public understand why this clean sweep was necessary. "Kennedy cited the panel's "stubborn unwillingness to demand adequate safety trials before recommending new vaccines for our children" as the most "outrageous example." What to watch: All eyes are on the new appointees for the board, including their scientific backgrounds, track records when it comes to defending vaccines and any potential conflicts of interest. HHS has indicated it has every intention of moving forward with ACIP's next meeting, scheduled for June 25-27. The agenda includes recommendation votes for COVID–19, HPV, influenza, meningococcal and RSV vaccines. "If nothing else, I think [the committee] may have trouble functioning because you've just lost a whole lot of institutional memory," said Adam Ratner, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases. "That agenda has the committee voting on real things that matter to real people, and I don't know how they're possibly going to do that in any kind of way that is based on science or evidence," he said.

CDC firings: Former director, fired vaccine panelist on RFK Jr's changes
CDC firings: Former director, fired vaccine panelist on RFK Jr's changes

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

CDC firings: Former director, fired vaccine panelist on RFK Jr's changes

(NewsNation) — While Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he wanted to restore public trust by firing the entire vaccine advisory panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one person he fired says Kennedy did the opposite in the academic community. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members was made up of medical and health professionals who made recommendations on the safety and use of vaccines. One of the 17 panelists fired is Dr. Noel Brewer, who joined NewsNation's 'CUOMO' on Tuesday night. 'My concern is that we've taken 60 years of efforts to build trust among health care providers in the recommendations of the advisory committee through CDC, and that trust just evaporated overnight,' Brewer said. 'It is going to be hard to get that back.' The committee was set to meet in two weeks to discuss COVID-19 and other vaccines. Judge determined OPM broke law with DOGE access to data 'I don't think most Americans even care that much about it. And now that there's all this news and people like me out from our ivory towers, it's generating interest,' Brewer said. 'But I don't think that the impact here is going to be primarily among the general public.' Dr. Robert Redfield was CDC director under the first Trump administration, and he said the public lost trust in the power of vaccines. 'I believe vaccines are the most important gift of science to modern medicine. When I was CDC director, I was very disturbed that over half of the population didn't get the flu vaccine,' he said. 'Then, the COVID pandemic came, and I have to say, although I have a lot of respect for Noel and the other people on the committee, the reality is the guidance that came out of the ACIP for COVID vaccines, I think in general, was ill-advised.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Biden's COVID czar hammers RFK Jr. over vaccine panel overhaul
Biden's COVID czar hammers RFK Jr. over vaccine panel overhaul

Yahoo

time8 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Biden's COVID czar hammers RFK Jr. over vaccine panel overhaul

Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha, who served under former President Biden, criticized the decision by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fire all 17 experts on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine panel. Kennedy announced the decision in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal on Monday, saying, 'A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.' But in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Jha pushed back against Kennedy's reasoning. 'Look, what he said in his op-ed was a series of nonsense about a group of individuals, experts …who shape what vaccines, if any, are going to be available to the American people,' Jha said in the interview. 'So obviously this is very concerning,' he continued. 'We'll have to see who he appoints next. But this is a step in the wrong direction.' Jha said he is concerned about what the move foretells about the secretary's agenda on vaccines. Jha pointed to what he characterized as a lackluster response from the secretary to 'the worst measles outbreak of the last 25 years.' He also expressed concern regarding Kennedy's raising questions about vaccines causing autism, which Jha dismissed and said was 'settled science.' 'Then you put this in the middle of all of that,' Jha said, referring to the vaccine panel sweep, 'and what you have is a pretty clear picture that what Secretary Kennedy is trying to do is make sure that vaccines are not readily available to Americans, not just for kids, for the elderly.' 'He could go pretty far with this move, and I really am worried about where we're headed,' Jha continued. He said he's particularly concerned about the effect Kennedy's move will have on kids and whether they will continue having access to certain vaccines in the future. 'Kids rely on vaccines. I'm worried about whether the next generation of kids are going to have access to polio vaccines and measles vaccines. That's where we're heading. That's what we have to push back against.' Kennedy said in his op-ed that he was removing every member of the panel to give the Trump administration an opportunity to appoint its own members. Kennedy has long accused members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of having conflicts of interest, sparking concern among vaccine advocates that he would seek to install members who are far more skeptical of approving new vaccines. But Jha pushed back against criticism that the panel was all Biden-appointed experts, saying, 'When the Biden administration came in, almost all of the appointees had come from the first Trump administration.' 'That was fine because they were good people,' he said. 'They were experts. Right now, it's the same thing. The people he is firing are experts — like a nurse in Illinois who spent her entire career getting kids vaccinated, cancer doctors from Memorial Sloan Kettering — like these are really good people.' 'And generally, CDC has not worried about when were they appointed. The question is, are they good and are they conflict free.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store