Study of Cryotherapy for COVID-19 Anosmia Fails the Sniff Test
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The authors of a study suggesting that a deep freeze might help reverse one of the curious complications of COVID-19 have put their paper on ice after determining that they lacked adequate ethics approval for the research. The randomized study looked at the effect of cryotherapy in 45 people whose sense of smell had been disrupted by COVID. Two-thirds received either high- or low-dose cryotherapy – which Legrand's team defined as exposure to extremely low temperatures (−60°C to −110°C) in a double Cryoair chamber (MECOTEC, Pforzheim, Germany) for 3 min – while a third were assigned to a control group.
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@poulami Of the 30 people who undertook the cryotherapy sessions, 28 saw a 200% improvement in their sense of smell score, while just two experienced no effect. To date, the participants who did regain some of their sense of smell have retained it at that level.