THE USE OF ENDONASAL ELECTROPHORESIS WITH MEXIDOL IN COMBINATION WITH ACUPUNCTURE IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH POST-COVID ANOSMIA

Abstract

Introduction. A change or lack of odor in patients after suffering from Covid-19 caused the development of serious disturbances in appetite and nutrition, which led to a decrease in body weight and a deterioration in the function of the digestive system as a whole, followed by alimentary damage to internal organs. Aim. To study the effectiveness of the combined use of endonasal electrophoresis and acupuncture in the treatment of patients with post-covid anosmia. Materials and methods: 30 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 were under our supervision. All patients suffered from post-covid anosmia. 15 patients underwent exclusively drug therapy (control group) and 15 patients, in addition to drug therapy, underwent a course of endonasal electrophoresis of 5% Mexidol solution and acupuncture. All patients underwent testing of olfactory nerve function with the Sniffin ‘Sticks test before and after treatment. Results and its discussions: it was found that the use of endonasal electrophoresis in combination with acupuncture significantly enhances the effectiveness of drug therapy in improving the parameters of the olfactory nerve in the threshold test by 143.5% (p <0.01), the discriminatory test by 129.5% (p <0, 01), the identification test by 184.5% (p <0.01) and by the total number of points by 148.7% (p <0.01). Conclusion: High efficiency of combined use of endonasal electrophoresis of 5% Mexidol solution and acupuncture in the treatment of patients with post-covid anosmia was detected. This method of treatment increases the effectiveness of drug therapy by 1.5 times.