ArticleCureus2025
A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Management of Post-COVID-19 Olfactory Dysfunction in a Pediatric Population.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Clinical evaluation of pediatric olfactory disorders: a review from etiology to management.Frontiers in allergy · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOlfactory impairment is an important sequela of SARS-CoV-2 infection with potential long-term implications. Of treatments posited for post-COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction (OD), the strongest evidence supports olfactory training (OT) and topical steroids; however, a direct comparison of these treatments has yet to be published. Our objective was to directly compare the efficacy of OT versus budesonide irrigations for the treatment of post-COVID-19 OD in a pediatric population. Methods: Pediatric patients aged six to 21 years presenting to the University of Pittsburgh, a tertiary children's hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between September 2021 and May 2023 with at least eight weeks of smell dysfunction following COVID-19 infection were eligible. Participants were randomized (parallel, non-blinded) to 1) OT or 2) OT with budesonide irrigations (OT+BI) for eight weeks. Participants completed a University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) and 22-item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) upon enrollment and eight-week follow-up. Results: Twenty participants (75% female, median 16.0 years, range 7-19 years) were included, with 11 participants in the OT arm and nine in the OT+BI arm. The median time from COVID-19 infection to clinic presentation was 279.5 days (range 60-952 days). The OT arm did not show significant improvement in SNOT-22 or UPSIT scores at the eight-week follow-up, with limited follow-up data for the OT+BI irrigation arm. Conclusions: We present the first randomized clinical trial comparing OT and topical steroids for the management of post-COVID-19 OD in a pediatric population. Although the participants did not show significant improvement in olfactory outcomes at eight weeks, hypothetically, longer treatment times may be warranted. This study was limited by a small sample size and high attrition, particularly in the intervention arm, which restricts the strength of our conclusions.
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