REEDUCATION OF OLFACTORY DISORDERS AFTER A CEREBRAL VASCULAR ACCIDENT IN ADULTS

Study context: The literature identifies more and more research revealing olfactory disorders, with a high frequency after an acquired brain injury. So far, studies have mainly focused on post-traumatic and post-infectious olfactory disorders of the upper airways. There is scarcer data available on the olfactory disorders occurring after stroke. A recent study found 43.6% of patients with a loss of olfactory function after a stroke (2). This type of disorder can have repercussions in everyday life and endanger people, not being able to smell a burning odor or gas fumes. In addition, patients frequently describe loss of pleasure associated with these olfactory disorders (3). Tests allowing the evaluation of these difficulties exist but remain little used in clinical routine (4). These psychophysical tests allow a quantitative analysis of the olfactory capacities of subjects through various measures such as the detection threshold (T SST sub-score), discrimination (D SST sub-score) or the identification of an odor. (SST sub-score I). Some studies have shown a reduction in olfactory disturbances following specific training. Thus, Hummel et al. proposed a self-stimulation protocol to patients whose olfactory dysfunction was due to various aetiologies (post-infectious, post-traumatic or idiopathic) (5). People were to smell 4 scents twice a day for 12 weeks. The results show an improvement in the olfaction of the patients, while no change was noted in the subjects who did not perform the training. Lehrer et al. obtained similar results in patients with head trauma (CT) after 3 months of training (6). However, no study has looked at the effect of specific olfaction training in post-stroke patients. The few data available in the literature suggest that these disorders are common after stroke. Objectives : We propose an open, randomized controlled study, comparing the SST score between the group of patients who received olfactory training and the group who received stand