Otorhinolaryngological Manifestations Following COVID-19 Disease-A Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Introduction: COVID-19 infection is caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. Clinical manifestations can range from patients being asymptomatic to flu- like symptoms like sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and fatigue. Theworld continues to deal with successive attacks of coronavirus with the emergence of new variants.Aim: To study the ENT manifestations in patients who have recovered from COVID-19 infection for a period of 6 months, from October 2021 to March 2022 (3 months after the recovery).Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study involving a total of 80 patients who attended the Department of ENT, at Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu. All patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were assessed for any ENT manifestations based on history and clinical examination. Statistical analysis was done using Fischer's exact test/ Chi-square test to test the association between general characteristics of the study population and the persistence of ENT manifestations following COVID-19 disease for which Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 and Microsoft Excel software were used.Results: This study included 36 male and 44 female patients with a mean age of 39.11 ± 9.9 years. The common ENT manifestations were smell and taste disturbances, hearing loss, nasal obstruction, hoarseness of voice and headache. It was concluded from the study that the most commonly presenting symptom was hyposmia/ anosmia constituting about 30% followed by hard of hearing (10%).Conclusion: A significantly large number of patients show residual symptoms beyond acute infection. The findings in this study are similar to the findings in other studies in the literature which showed that themost commonly involved is nose and paranasal sinuses. Further studies in collaboration with various specialities are recommended to study post-COVID manifestations in depth. How to cite this article:Prabakaran S, Navin N R B, Rajasekaran S, GopanG U. Otorhinolaryngological Manifestations Following COVID-19 Disease -A Cross-Sectional Observational Study. J Commun Dis. 2024;56(1):70-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0019.5138.202411