Results
We interviewed a total of 355 patients with laboratory confirmed
diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. The population had a median time from symptoms
onset of 23 ([17-28] range 2-53) days. Median age was 50 years old,
192 (54%) were male. The overall population prevalence of both smell
and taste or either one of the two disorders was 70% (249 out of 355).
Among the two study symptoms 14 (3.9%) patients presented a smell
disorder with no alteration of taste, while 12 (3.4%) patients
presented with a taste disorder with no alternation of smell (but
presented other SARS-CoV-2 systemic symptoms). Two patients presented
with smell disorders as the sole SARS-CoV-2 symptom, while none had
taste disorders as their only symptom. Smell or taste disorders were the
first symptom of presentation in 31 (8.7% of entire population and
13.0%) patients. Patients characteristics of the interviewed
population, and for those presenting with olfactory and taste
dysfunctions are presented in Table 1.
Smell Disorders
237 (66%) patients reported a change in smell perception greater than
two points between their baseline smell and the worst smell experienced
during the infection. Of these, 128 (54%) reported the smell
dysfunction already present at the time of diagnosis.
These patients had a baseline smell perception of 10 ([9-10] range
3-10) with a worst smell perception during the infection of 0 ([0-2]
range 0-7). At fourteen days from infection 115 (49.5%) of patients
declared a full recovery with smell as good as at baseline, while the
remaining 122 declared a certain degree of remaining deficit with an
overall population perception of 8 ([6-10] range 0-10). Variation of
smell perception at different study period is presented in Figure 1A.
149 (62.9%) patients reported full recovery at the time of interview,
with a median recovery time of 10 ([7-15] range 1-25) days. No
patient reported taking any specific therapy for their disorder.
Taste Disorders
232 (65.4%) patients reported a change in taste perception greater than
two points between their baseline taste and the worst test experienced
during the infection. These patients had a baseline taste perception of
10 ([9-10] range 5-10) with a worst taste perception during the
infection of 0 ([0-2] range 0-10). At fourteen days from infection
117 (50.4%) of patients declared a full recovery with test as good as
at baseline while the remaining 115 (49.6%) declared a certain degree
of remaining deficit with an overall population perception of 8
([6-10] range 0-10). Variation of taste perception at different
study period is presented in Figure 1B.148 (63.8%) patients reported
full recovery at the time of interview, with a median recovery time of
10 ([7-15] range 2-25) days. No patient reported taking any specific
therapy for their taste disorder.
Figure 2 shows the daily rate of recovery for both smell and taste
disorders.