The outcome of olfactory impairment in patients with otherwise paucisymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 during the pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to measure the duration and recovery rate of olfactory loss in patients complaining of recent smell loss as their prominent symptom during the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak. METHOD: This was a prospective telephone follow-up observational study of 243 participants who completed an online survey that started on 12 March 2020. RESULTS: After a mean of 5.5 months from the loss of smell onset, 98.3 per cent of participants reported improvement with a 71.2 per cent complete recovery rate after a median of 21 days. The chance of complete recovery significantly decreased after 131 days from the onset of loss of smell (100 per cent sensitive and 97.7 per cent specific). Younger age and isolated smell loss were associated with a rapid recovery, whereas accompanying rhinological and gastrointestinal symptoms were associated with longer loss of smell duration. CONCLUSION: Smell loss, occurring as a prominent symptom during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, showed a favourable outcome. However, after 5.5 months from the onset, around 10 per cent of participants still complained of moderate or severe hyposmia.

National university hospital discharge survey in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We aimed to determine the rate of hospital discharge, average length of stay and bed occupancy rate in different hospital wards around the country. The survey consisted of health care service activities from 452 university-related hospitals in the country with a total of 59,348 beds. Because of missing data, the use of 56,315 of these beds was analysed. The countrywide discharge rate was 68.32 patients/1000 population per year with an average length of stay of 3.60 days and a bed occupancy rate of 57.44%. The data could be used to design a framework for prediction of inpatient health care facilities needed in the future.