Correlation Between Smell Recovery and Nasal Polyp Score in Patients Treated with Dupilumab: A Real-Life Retrospective, Observational, Monocentric Study

Olfactory recovery plays an important role in improving the quality of life in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP), and Dupilumab therapy shows promising results. The Nasal Polyp Score (NPS), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for olfactory disorders (ODs), and the Snif n’ Sticks 16-item identi cation test (SS-I) are three of the main indices of ef cacy in CRSwNP treatment. Although mechanical obstruction appears to be a major cause of olfactory disorders in this condition, the three indices can often vary with different trends. Aim: The aim is to assess whether there is a correlation between the sense of smell recovery and the volumetric reduction in polyps and to assess how the reduction in NPS affects the improvement in olfactory symptoms. Methods: An observational monocentric retrospective cohort study was conducted on a sample of 50 patients, enrolled in treatment with Dupilumab for 12 months at the ENT Unit of Rodolico Hospital. We investigated the relationship between NPS changes and olfactory recovery using the Snif n’ Stick 16-item identi cation test and the VAS for ODs at baseline and follow-up endpoints (1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month assessments). Results: During the follow-up, according to the data in the literature, the patients showed a faster improvement in terms of SS-I and VAS for ODs than expressed in terms of NPS variation. Conclusions: This study shows that, in patients treated with Dupilumab, there is no strong correlation between the reduction in NPS and the recovery of the sense of smell evaluated by an improvement in the SS-I and VAS for ODs in the 12 months of follow-up, suggesting that, in patients with CRSwNP, the improvement in olfactory symptoms following treatment with Dupilumab is mainly related to its anti-in ammatory effects and not to the reduction in mechanical obstruction caused by nasal polyps.