Otolaryngology >>>> No sense of smell is anosmia

No sense of smell is anosmia.

Any person, even a potentially healthy person, has suffered from the loss of the sense of smell more than once in his life. Such a violation most often develops in acute respiratory diseases, when swelling of the nasal mucosa leads to a loss of smell for a while. But anosmia - loss of smell forever, is not common and accompanies as a symptom of diseases associated with impaired neural conduction from the olfactory receptors of the nasal mucosa to the limbic system of the brain, where such signals are processed.

Anosmia can develop with concussions and craniocerebral trauma, with encephalitis, with myelitis and a number of specific syndromes.

The most dangerous for the development of anosmia are bacterial infections of the nose and nasopharynx (sinusitis of bacterial etiology), injuries of the nasal septum (it is in this area that the mucous layer with olfactory receptors is located).

Anosmia can lead to burns of the nasal mucosa caused by inhalation of vapors of acids, alkalis. Harmful working conditions associated with toxic substances, vapors of heavy metals, vapors of chlorine, ammonia and other volatile substances. Poisonous fumes when working with high concentrations of disinfectants, fertilizers, chemical reagents in conditions of safety violations (lack of fume hoods, protective respirators and gas masks) lead over time to loss of smell.

Congenital cases of anosmia are rare, since patients who live from birth with a lack of smell, as a rule, do not go to the doctor, since they have no idea about the presence of odors in their environment.

Anosmia is not fatal, but it causes a number of inconveniences and can serve as a factor in such diseases as food poisoning (a person does not catch the smell of spoilage of the product), poisoning with gas emissions (he will not leave the premises in time at the time of a gas leak), and there is also a danger of becoming a victim of a fire, since if there is no sense of smell, the person will not feel the beginning of the fire.

This suggests that with anosmia - a complete absence of smell - for a person, there is a difficulty in living safely in the environment. Anosmia exists as an independent disorder and is rarely combined with a lack of taste.

Treatment of anosmia always begins with a search for the underlying disease that caused this symptom, and given that the cells of the mucous membrane, equipped with olfactory receptors, have the ability to regenerate if they are not completely destroyed, then a person may have a chance to restore the sense of smell.