Although COVID-19 cases have declined in recent months, there are still millions of other people possibly suffering from prolonged COVID, prolonged symptoms that can persist for months or even years after a COVID-19 infection. These symptoms can present with fatigue, shortness of breath, sleep disturbances, fever, gastrointestinal problems, anxiety, depression and “brain fog,” according to the National Institutes of Health. Another non-unusual symptom is loss of smell from COVID. Fortunately, recent studies and clinical practice in the United States have a possible solution to this debilitating condition.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, stellar ganglion block (GBS) is an injection of medication into the stellar ganglion, a component of the sympathetic nerve formula located in the neck on either side of the larynx. GBS in those nerves can help relieve pain in the neck, head, upper chest, and upper arms, and can also flow and be a source of blood in the arm. GBS is already being used to treat several conditions, however, researchers and healthcare professionals are now investigating whether the injection can also treat COVID-19. Related loss of smell.
A recent Newsweek article, for example, highlighted the works of David Gaskin, MHS, CRNA, a nurse anesthetist in non-surgical pain management in Bryan, Texas, who has performed GBS on some two hundred COVID patients for a long time and claims that the procedure has had an effect of 85% to 90% of fortune rate. In December 2021, a case series published in the Journal of Neuroimmunology found that GBS can help reduce a variety of prolonged COVID symptoms, adding fatigue, cognitive difficulties, and loss of smell distortion. In the case examined, two long-standing COVID patients were treated with GBS, one reported a “lasting recovery of taste and smell” two weeks after the procedure, and the other reported a “drastic improvement” in their sense of smell just a few minutes later. The researchers suggested that GBS might have helped rebalance the interaction between the nervous and immune systems, but noted that additional study was needed.
In GBS, a specialist will inject a local anesthetic into the domain with a fine needle and, using an X-ray or ultrasound, use a momentary needle to inject an anesthetic drug. The procedure can take up to 30 minutes and its charge is estimated at around $2,000. Although the procedure is low-risk, some side effects are possible, adding bruising or pain at the injection site, drooping eyelids, bloodshot eyes, tearing, hoarse voice, or difficulty swallowing, which regularly disappear within a few hours. . . In addition, it is not guaranteed to work; in the Newsweek article, a patient experienced an improvement in smell and taste for a few hours before returning to his previous state.
Research has shown that a COVID-19 infection, other people are 27 times more likely to experience a loss of smell than other people who have not become inflamed with the virus. It is not known how common loss of smell is in those who have contracted the virus; However, according to a UK government study based on 351,850 survey responses, 37% of other people with self-reported prolonged COVID have loss of smell and pleasure.
“The long duration of COVID is having a serious effect on people’s ability to repaint or have a social life. This affects their intellectual fitness and can have significant economic consequences for them, their families and society,” the World Health Organization said. said in a summary last year. In February 2021, the U. S. Congress. . . The U. S. spent $1. 15 billion to fund studies on the long COVID. the causes, symptoms, and possible treatment pathways of prolonged COVID. While the use of GBS to treat long-term loss of smell similar to COVID is still at its new level of treatment, it could offer some optimism to those suffering with the enduring intellectual and physical effects of COVID-19.
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