Real-world observational data on olfactory dysfunction of the Smell & Taste Clinic of UZ Leuven (Belgium) from 2021-2024.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in olfactory dysfunction (OD), increasing the need for specialized care. Thi study explores the prevalence, characteristics, and clinical implications of OD in a specialized Smell & Taste Clinic established at the ENT-HNS department of the University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven) in 2021.

Methodology: We included consecutive patients with OD in the observational longitudinal ProspeRo'Scent registry at UZ Leuven between September 2021 and April 2024.

Treatment of COVID-19 Associated Olfactory Dysfunction: A Systematic Review.

Purpose Of Review: COVID -19 associated olfactory dysfunction is widespread, yet effective treatment strategies remain unclear. This article aims to provide a comprehensive systematic review of therapeutic approaches and offers evidence-based recommendations for their clinical application.

Recent Findings: A living Cochrane review, with rigorous inclusion criteria, has so far included 2 studies with a low certainty of evidence.

Protocol for postmortem bedside endoscopic procedure to sample human respiratory and olfactory cleft mucosa, olfactory bulbs, and frontal lobe.

We present a protocol for the rapid postmortem bedside procurement of selected tissue samples using an endoscopic endonasal surgical technique that we adapted from skull base surgery. We describe steps for the postmortem collection of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, a nasopharyngeal swab, and tissue samples; the clean-up procedure; and the initial processing and storage of the samples. This protocol was validated with tissue samples procured postmortem from COVID-19 patients and can be applied in another emerging infectious disease.

Anatomical barriers against SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion at vulnerable interfaces visualized in deceased COVID-19 patients.

Can SARS-CoV-2 hitchhike on the olfactory projection and take a direct and short route from the nose into the brain? We reasoned that the neurotropic or neuroinvasive capacity of the virus, if it exists, should be most easily detectable in individuals who died in an acute phase of the infection. Here, we applied a postmortem bedside surgical procedure for the rapid procurement of tissue, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid samples from deceased COVID-19 patients infected with the Delta, Omicron BA.1, or Omicron BA.

Visualizing in deceased COVID-19 patients how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the respiratory and olfactory mucosae but spares the olfactory bulb.

Anosmia, the loss of smell, is a common and often the sole symptom of COVID-19. The onset of the sequence of pathobiological events leading to olfactory dysfunction remains obscure. Here, we have developed a postmortem bedside surgical procedure to harvest endoscopically samples of respiratory and olfactory mucosae and whole olfactory bulbs.