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Anosmia

Consultant Neurologist, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I beg to differ from Drs Hawkes and Shah in their article on testing the sense of smell in the August issue of the journal.¹

In medico-legal practice one should always test the sense of smell in each nostril, individually. It is surprising how often one comes across unilateral anosmia in patients who have suffered even minor head trauma. Occasionally one meets patients who have an altered sense of smell and taste—that which was pleasant before the accident has become unpleasant or has changed in characteristic. Testing both nostrils simultaneously reveals no hyposmia or anosmia but if one tests the nostrils individually in such cases it is often found that the sense of smell is altered in one of them—either changed or lessened.

They dismiss the use of ammonia when detecting malingerers. They have obviously never seen a claimant purporting to have bilateral anosmia who sits on an examination couch . . . [Full text of this article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. H Hawkes and M. Shah Anosmia: a response Practical Neurology, June 1, 2006; 6(3): 200 - 200. [Full Text] [PDF]