Alrusayyis D, Aljubran H, Alshaibani A, Alsharhan S, AlSaied A, ALEnazi A, Alghamdi A, Alshahrani S, Salam A, Al Bar M. Patterns of Otorhinolaryngological Manifestations of Covid-19: A Longitudinal Questionnaire-Based Prospective Study in a Tertiary Hospital in Saudi Arabia.
J Prim Care Community Health 2022;
13:21501319221084158. [PMID:
35311409 PMCID:
PMC8941688 DOI:
10.1177/21501319221084158]
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Abstract
Objective:
Many studied investigated the manifestations of COVID-19, yet few described
the pattern and severity of otolaryngological symptoms. We aim to describe
the picture of COVID-19-associated otorhinolaryngological manifestations and
recovery to explore individualized treatment, onward referral, and
complications prevention.
Design:
Prospective longitudinal questionnaire-based study.
Setting:
The online questionnaire was filled 3 times through a remote interview over a
period of 1 month from June 2020 to July 2020.
Participants:
Patients with confirmed COVID-19 by RT-PCR who were clinically stable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Date of diagnosis, sociodemographic data, and the presence of predictive
factors, such as nasal and paranasal disease, anosmia and dysgeusia.
Validated tools were used, such as Sino-nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), smell
test (medical academy screening tool), Voice Handicap Index (VHI), and
Reflux Symptoms Index (RSI).
Result:
The questionnaire was sent to 363 patients and the response rate was 70.80%
(n = 257). The mean age was 34.58 years (SD = 11.22) and the rate of male
participants was 60.7%. The most common otorhinolaryngological symptoms at
the time of enrollment was fever (48.6%), whilst the commonest severe
symptom was cough (57%). After 1 month, only 11 participants had persistent
severe symptoms, especially sleep and psychological symptoms (73%), and the
majority were female (63.6%). All of them had at least 1 comorbidity. There
was a significant difference between the mean age of participants with
severe symptoms (mean = 27.45, SD = 8.39) and without severe symptoms
(mean = 34.90, SD = 2.53, t(255) = 2.17,
P = .031).
Conclusion:
COVID-19 has a wide-ranged spectrum of presentations, with
otorhinolaryngological symptoms being the commonest and most serious.
Studying these symptoms is vital to advance management options.
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