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.