Prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis in patients with a Long Covid course

Introduction  Assuming that disorders of the sense of smell are an important symptom of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), CRS is an exclusion criterion in various studies on olfactory and gustatory disorders associated with Covid-19 and in particular the long-term courses. A few reports in the literature on the prevalence of CRS in covid-19 sufferers showed controversial results.

Material and method  We report on the collection of anamnestic data and symptom questionnaires from a total of 354 patients from two ENT practices and one rehabilitation clinic. All respondents were confirmed to have a SARS-COV-2 infection. Of this study group, 127 patients (97 of them from the rehabilitation clinic) had a Long Covid course. In addition to the prevalence of chronic sinus problems in the history of the patients group, the focus of this evaluation was the recording of symptoms at the beginning of the illnesses (semiquantitative) and in the post covid phase.

Results 43.3% of the surveyed patients with a Long Covid course reported chronic sinus problems in their medical history. The difference to the whole study group was significant. Olfactory and gustatory disturbances, but also headache, dizziness and fever in the early phase of SARS-COV-2 disease were reported as more pronounced by patients with chronic sinus problems than by patients without such a history. The pronounced olfactory and gustatory dysfunction proved to be an early cardinal symptom for a later long covid progression. A significant risk for severe acute courses of SARS-Cov-2 infection in the sense of necessary hospital treatment could not be secured for this group of patients in our study.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2023