More than 1.5 million Americans are dealing with smell and taste loss months after testing positive for COVID-19.
But relief may be on the way, as doctors at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia are on the brink of a first-of-its-kind therapy that gives hope to those COVID-19 long-haulers.
Dr. David Rosen, associate professor of otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University and a lead researcher at Jefferson Health, said a new minimally invasive and painless procedure can help patients recover those senses.
“So it’s basically taking the platelet-rich plasma that you prepare from the patient’s blood,” he explained, “and you put it on a little sponge in the nose. The little sponge dissolves and the platelet-rich plasma gets absorbed, and then that gets the olfactory neurons to start regenerating and repairing themselves.”
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Rosen noted using platelets’ growth factors to help the body repair tissue is not uncommon.
“It’s been done in orthopedics, in hair loss, scar revision,” he said. “So platelet-rich plasma is nothing new. The new thing is applying it topically to the olfactory areas in the nose.”
Phase 2 of the clinical trial is underway now, which will help determine how many treatments are necessary. Some patients have already started to see improvements in just three appointments.
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“Prior to this [platelet-rich plasma] that we started using, there’s really been nothing except for smell retraining exercises that has any scientific support that it works,” Rosen said. “And the best that any of these little treatments have gotten is about 30% response. … Probably 75%, 80% of COVID patients have responded, so basically, there’s hope now. And in the past, there really wasn’t much hope.”
The treatment is currently not covered by insurance. It costs $500 per application but will be available for free to patients enrolled in the next phase of the clinical study.
People interested in learning more about this treatment or scheduling a consultation can contact Jefferson Health at 1-800-JEFF-NOW and smell@jefferson.edu, or visit jeffersonhealth.org/otolaryngology.
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