Introduction
As of Augustus 4th 2020, there were 17,918,582
confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide,
including 686,703 deaths. While the pandemic seems to be under control
in Europe and Asia, the number of cases in North and South America is
still high.1 The clinical picture of the infection
includes fever, cough and dyspnea but recent studies reported a high
prevalence of otolaryngological symptoms, especially in mild
patients,2 including rhinorrhea, nasal obstruction,
throat pain and dysphonia.2,3 A special attention has
been paid to olfactory (OD) and gustatory dysfunctions (GD) because they
may concern a significant number of patients.2,4,5 The
majority of studies investigating OD or GD have included patients with
mild form of the disease, with, consequently, few considerations of
patients with moderate, severe or critical diseases. To date, a few data
are available in the literature about the prevalence of OD and GD
according to the severity of the disease and little is known about the
conditions associated with the development of OD and GD.
The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence and the
associated conditions of GD and OD development in COVID-19 patients
according to the severity of the disease.