Comprehensive Otolaryngology

Introduction: COVID-19 is an emerging disease that affects health care workers because of their greater exposure to the virus. There are few studies that describe the whole range of otolaryngologic manifestations in this population. The objective was to determine the prevalence of otorhinolaryngological symptoms in COVID-19-positive health care workers. Method: A multicenter, symptoms survey was applied to health care workers with positive COVID-19 reverse transcriptase- polymerase chain reaction results from September 2020 to October 2020. An informed consent form was digitally signed. Google Forms software was used for the survey. Data was transferred to Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS statistics, version 21. Results: We included 209 health care workers: 55.5% were women, 44.5% were men, and 53% were 20 to 30 years old. One comorbidity was present in 56.4% of the population, 2 comorbidities in 12.9%, and 3 or more comorbidities in 3.8%;among those comorbidities, obesity (23.9%) and arterial hypertension (14.3%) were the most frequent. The main general symptoms were asthenia (81.3%), headache (76.1%), and fever (67.5%). Otologic symptoms were otalgia (13.4%), vertigo (11.5%), tinnitus (8.1%), dizziness (8.1%), and 1 case of facial paralysis. Olfactory symptoms were anosmia (45%) and hyposmia (21.1%), and the main oral symptoms were xerostomia (44.4%), ageusia (33%), and hypogeusia in 25.4%. Neck symptoms were submandibular lymphadenopathy (11%) and 4 cases of thyroiditis (1.9%). A positive chest computed tomography scan for COVID-19 (n = 92) was significantly associated with olfactory symptoms (P = .001) and taste dysfunction (P = .037). Conclusion: COVID-19-positive health care workers had a wide range of otorhinolaryngological manifestations, with the olfactory symptoms being the most common.