According to NBC News, a numbing surgery known as stellate ganglion block can return smell for those who have lost it due to prolonged COVID-19.
This method is typically used to manage pain in which medical professionals numb any area of the body with anaesthesia. In order to treat COVID-19, an injection is made into a specific group of sympathetic nerves on both sides of the patient’s neck. The primary bodily processes, including digestion, are under the neurological system’s control.
Physicians are disputing how it affects a person’s life; some question the strategy, while others note significant advancements since people began to experience taste and smell.
As people age, smell problems and anosmia grow more prevalent and impact many people. Every eighth American over the age of 40 has some degree of olfactory impairment, according to the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
A survey done the previous year revealed that 15% of persons who contracted COVID-19 are still having issues with taste and smell months later.
There is no effective treatment for this, but research have shown that sniffing four cents—rose, eucalyptus, lemon, and clove—twice day for at least three months can be effective.
Efforts to get the smell back
Doctors at Cleveland are offering the stellate ganglion block approach with the hope of clinical trials.
Jennifer Henderson, 54, who received stellate ganglion block for COVID-19 at Cleveland was suffering from a similar condition as he was unable to taste or smell anything. After the shot, she could smell the coffee.
“It was the best smell ever. I just cried like a baby”, Henderson said.
Dr Christina Shin — a physician in pain management at the hospital — said she had treated around 30 such patients and half of them get their senses back. She estimated that the “level of improvement varies between 25% and 90%.”
People’s optimism was rekindled by incredible achievements like Handerson, while doctors continue to have doubts about the procedure.
While some claim the shot boosts blood flow, theories suggest that it resets the sympathetic nervous system.
There is no data to support its efficacy, according to Dr. Justin Turner, an associate professor in the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville.
“Given the lack of data suggesting efficacy, it’s really hard to advocate for this for patients who have a problem that typically resolves with time,” he said.
Dr Zara Patel of Stanford University said 80% of people recover naturally within six months.
“Throughout our lifetime, probably every three to four months, each olfactory receptor neuron dies off, and a new olfactory receptor neuron comes in and takes its place,” Patel said.
A distorted smell is called parosmia which has a deep impact on a person’s life. Researchers in 2021, UK found that people were worried. how they felt about their children.
“A lot of my maternal bonding feelings for my children are tied up with the smell,” a woman was quoted as saying in the study.
Other methods to revive smell
There are other ways to solve the issue besides the COVID-19 stellate ganglion block. Patel of Stanford University carried out research on infusing platelet-rich plasma that might support healthy neuronal function.
In the operation, a person’s blood is drawn with all of its constituents—aside from growth factors and platelets—in order to spark the growth of various tissues.
Hopefully, platelet-rich plasma is causing those neurons to renew in a way that ensures the proper signal is given back to the brain, said Patel.
Those who received plasma in the experiment reported improvement 12 times more frequently than those who received a placebo. Patel will then make this surgery available to patients with this issue.
Is stellate ganglion block treatment effective?
Stellate ganglion block treatment was made popular back after its successful treatment by Dr Luke Liu, a pain specialist in Anchorage, in December 2021.
Other symptoms have also improved in patients, he said.
He theorised that the problem occurs due to glitches after long COVID effects but the stellate ganglion block resets the nervous system.
He treated around three hundred patients and reported 60-70% improvement.
However, he said it is too early to say definitely about the effectiveness of the treatment, suggesting that further studies in this regard are required.
