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Updated: Nov 10, 2025

Author Spotlight: Assessing the Olfactory Effects of Airborne Pollutants — Buried Food and Social Odor Tests
Published on: September 13, 2024
Persisting olfactory dysfunction improves in patients 6 months after COVID-19 disease
Martin Sylvester Otte1, Marie-Luise Bork1, Philipp Heinrich Zimmermann1
1Medical Faculty, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Background:
Smell disorders persist in about half of the patients with other symptoms of COVID-19 disease, but the exact duration of the symptoms is yet unknown. Especially, only a few studies used validated olfactory tests for this.
Aims/Objectives:
The aim of this study was to investigate how many patients with olfactory function impairment, which was detected in a validated olfactory test 3 months after COVID-19 disease, showed improvement in olfactory function after 6 months.
Methods:
About 26 patients with a PCR-confirmed, former COVID-19 disease, with an impaired olfactory function after three months, were included in the study. The olfactory function was evaluated with the sniffing sticks test, the taste function with taste sprays.
Results:
Smelling function improved in all but one patient (96%). All measured subitems, i.e. olfactory threshold, identification and discrimination of odours significantly improved. In the whole mouth taste test all patients showed normal taste function.
Conclusions And Significance:
6 months after COVID-19 disease, olfactory function improves in just about all patients. Long-term measurements must investigate whether complete regeneration of the olfactory function will occur in all patients.
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