November 2019

ARE PATIENTS WITH MORE SEVERE SMELL LOSS LESS LIKELY TO RECOVER THEIR SMELL FUNCTION WITH TREATMENT?

Patients with smell loss (hyposmia) have different degrees of smell loss. We have categorized them by type of loss as follows:

anosmia	cannot detect or recognize odors at any concentration
type I	can detect odors but cannot recognize odors at any concentration
type II	can detect and recognize odors but both much less than normal
type III	can detect odors normally but decreased recognition than normal

Patient with anosmia represent about 2% of patients with smell loss
Patients with type I hyposmia represent about 18% of patients with smell loss
Patients with type II hyposmia represent about 60% of patients with smell loss
Patients with type III hyposmia represent about 20% of patients with smell loss

At first glance it may seem that the greater degree or type of smell loss the less likely it is for patients to recover their acuity with treatment. This is not the case.

We have treated over 5000 patients with smell loss of varying types. Although patients with anosmia did not respond to treatment and recover their smell function, patients with types I-III smell loss recovered their smell function with equal ability, but variably related to the cause of their smell loss.