Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-13-2020

Abstract

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which first arose in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has since been declared a pandemic. The clinical sequelae vary from mild, self-limiting upper respiratory infection symptoms to severe respiratory distress, acute cardiopulmonary arrest and death. Otolaryngologists around the globe have reported a significant number of mild or otherwise asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 presenting with olfactory dysfunction. We present a case of COVID-19 resulting in intensive care unit (ICU) admission, presenting with the initial symptom of disrupted taste and flavour perception prior to respiratory involvement. After 4 days in the ICU and 6 days on the general medicine floor, our patient regained a majority of her sense of smell and was discharged with only lingering dysgeusia. In this paper, we review existing literature and the clinical course of SARS-CoV-2 in relation to the reported symptoms of hyposmia, hypogeusia and dysgeusia.

Publication Title

BMJ Case Reports

Volume

13

Issue

5

Comments

This article was published in BMJ Case Reports, Volume 13, Issue 5.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-236080

Copyright © 2020 BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2020. CC BY-NC 4.0.

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