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Some
doctors around the country are finding success with an experimental treatment
for patients suffering from a loss of smell. As of late 2021, up to 1.6
million Americans had long-term smell loss due to
COVID-19. Many people experiencing lasting symptoms have trouble
smelling for months or years after the initial infections, and some report
drastic changes in their sense of smell — things that were once sweet turn
putrid.
The new treatment, called a stellate ganglion block, is typically used to
treat pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. It involves injecting a
temporary anesthetic into specific nerves on both sides of the neck.
For some, it’s been life-changing. Jennifer Henderson got her sense of smell
back about a year after having COVID, but it was wildly different (peanut
butter smelled like chemicals and chicken smelled rotten). After one stellate
ganglion block, she breathed in the scent of a fresh cup of coffee and
rejoiced. “It was the best smell ever,” she told NBC News. “I just cried like
a baby.”
There’s still a ways to go on establishing stellate ganglion blocks as an
effective procedure for smell loss or dysfunction, but some researchers are hoping to set up a
clinical trial to do just that.
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