Efficacy of Topical Intranasal Steroid Spray in Improving Post-COVID Anosmia at A Tertiary Care Hospital

Efficacy of Topical Steroid Spray in Improving Post-COVID Anosmia

Abstract

Objective: Efficacy of topical Fluticasone in improving anosmia in post-COVID patients. Study Design: Quasi experimental study. Settings: Department of ENT at Combined Military Hospital, Multan Pakistan. Duration: Six months from May 2022 to October 2022. Methods: patients were divided into two groups of 91 each based on the lottery method. Group A was given topical Fluticasone in 100μg once daily besides olfactory training, while group B only received olfactory training. Patient' smell sensation was assessed by coffee, mint, and garlic. They reported a degree of anosmia on a visual analog scale marked 0 – 10 after 1, 2, and 3 weeks. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 25 for descriptive and comparative statistics. Results: 182 patients meeting inclusion criteria were recruited, of which 47.8%were male and 52.2 % were females. The mean age of these patients was 39.23 ± 10.07 years (range; 23 – 63 years), the Mean age in group A was 40.00 ± 9.96 years versus 38.45 ± 10.17 years (P = 0.301) and 152 (83.5%) were aged up to 50 years. Of these 182 patients, (56.0%) were from urban areas, and (71.4%) were from middle-income families. History of diabetes was noted in 29.1%, hypertension in 36.8%, and mean body mass index was 25.21 ± 1.18. Efficacy was 56.6%, in group A and 50.5% in group B (P = 0.101). Conclusion: Corticosteroids showed a little higher efficacy, but our study results do not support their use in post-COVID anosmia patients as efficacy was not significantly higher. We suggest that further large-scale studies from different population subsets be conducted to create data-based evidence on this topic.