Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on November 23, 2005
Chemical Senses 2006 31(1):27-31; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjj002
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Mechanical Obstruction of the Olfactory Cleft Reveals Differences Between Orthonasal and Retronasal Olfactory Functions
1 Center for Rhinology and Allergology, Mannheim University, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2 Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstrasse 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany, 3 Rhinology-Olfaction Unit, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital of Geneva, CH 1211 Geneva, Switzerland and 4 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Correspondence to be sent to: Thomas Hummel, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden Medical School, Fetscherstrasse 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany. e-mail: thummel{at}rcs.urz.tu-dresden.de
Following up on recent observations in patients with nasal polyposis (NP), the present study aimed to investigate whether a mechanical obstruction of the anterior olfactory cleft (OC) would produce differential effects on orthonasal and retronasal olfactory functions. To this end, we studied 33 healthy subjects in a randomized trial. Sponges with high content of saline were either placed in the OC or on the respiratory epithelium, such that this was blinded to both subject and observer. The results indicated that orthonasal (P = 0.04) but not retronasal (P = 0.15) olfactory identification ability was lower when the OC was blocked. This confirms the idea that differences between orthonasal and retronasal olfactory functions, as observed in NP patients, are, at least to some degree, due to mechanical obstruction of the anterior portion of the OC. The present data also suggest that mechanical obstruction is a means to induce reversible hyposmia void of side effects which can be performed in a blinded fashion. This might become a valuable model of hyposmia for future investigations.
Key words: hyposmia model, interaction, olfaction, retronasal, Sniffin' Sticks, sponge
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