Nasal surgery shown to restore sense of smell in trial among long Covid patients

Doctors in London have successfully restored a sense of smell and taste in patients who lost it owing to long Covid with pioneering surgery that expands their nasal airways to kick-start their recovery.

- Andrew Gregory

Most patients diagnosed with Covid-19 recover fully. But the infectious disease can lead to serious long-term effects. About six in every 100 people who get Covid develop long Covid, with millions of people affected globally, according to the World Health Organization.

Losing the sense of smell and taste is among more than 200 different symptoms reported by people with long Covid.

Surgeons at University College London Hospitals NHS foundation trust have cured a dozen patients, each of whom had suffered a profound loss of smell following a Covid infection. All had experienced the problem for more than two years and other treatments, such as smell training and corticosteroids, had failed.