The International Meeting of the Committee on Olfaction and Gustation of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

It is known that both smell and taste functions decrease with aging. However, some clinical questions remain, such as the independence of each sensation loss and the correlation between a person’s actual sensory loss and awareness of the loss. In this research, we investigated both the olfactory and taste functions of aged subjects together with their awareness of sensation loss. Effects of analgesics on the intranasal trigeminal system Lars Mizera, Antje Hähner, Gudrun Gossrau, Thomas Hummel. Smell & Taste Centre, Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Pain Centre, Dept. of Anesthesia, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany ; [email protected] Analgesics are known to affect the trigeminal nerve especially in neuralgias. Intranasally, the olfactory and trigeminal system interact with each other in many ways. It has been shown that drugs interfere with the nasal chemosensory system, but the effects on the trigeminal system are poorly investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of nonopioid drugs and weak or strong opioids on the intranasal olfactory and trigeminal system. One hundred patients suffering from chronic pain with a longterm use of analgesics were assigned to three groups depending on their treatment based on the World Health Organizations’ guidelines for pain relief. A control group consisted of 95 persons without chronic use of analgesics. Olfactory function was tested using the ‘Sniffin' Sticks’ – a comprehensive method including test for odor threshold, discrimination and identification. For trigeminal stimulation, four odors (isoamyl acetate, cineole, eucalyptus and peppermint) were presented alternately in sniff bottles to the participants who rated their intensity using a visual analogue scale. Olfactory function was not found to be different between the three groups. However, odor discrimination and odor identification were found significantly reduced when compared to the control group. Trigeminal function in pain patients also differed significantly compared to controls. Intensities of the stimuli were rated significantly lower than in controls. Lowest results were seen in patients with non-opioid drugs. In this study, we have shown evidence that the intranasal trigeminal system may be influenced by analgesic drugs. “Kaiteki” position to reach the olfactory cleft for the nasal drops Eri Mori, M.D. , Christos Merkonidis, M.D., Mandy Scheibe, M.D., Volker Gudziol, M.D., and Thomas Hummel, M.D. Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany; 2 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, The jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; [email protected] Background: Treatment of sinunasal olfactory dysfunction is problematic. While systemic treatment with corticoids shows therapeutic effects, few patients benefit from intranasal topical drug application. This may partly be due to access of the intranasal spray to the