Bad smell from the nose or what is ozena

That's right, you didn't make a mistake, and there is no error in the title, ozen or ogavia – This is a serious disease, the main symptom of which is an unpleasant smell from the nose of a person. Surprised? Estet-portal will surprise you even more: the patient himself does not feel this smell at all! Ozena is a severe form of atrophic process in the nose, which extends to the mucous membrane and bones of the nose, and is characterized by the production of a rapidly drying discharge in the nasal cavity, which has a rich, specific, unpleasant odor.  During the lake, thinning of the nasal mucosa and its vessels occurs, the cylindrical epithelium of the nose degenerates into a flat one, even the bone layer of the nasal conchas becomes thinner. Why does it occur and how to treat ozena – knows  estet-portal.com.

Etiology of ozena: causes of bad breath

The etiology of bad breath is not fully understood. There are several theories of ozena development: social, anatomical, inflammatory, focal, infectious, neurodystrophic and endocrine. The last three theories are the most widely accepted today. According to the infectious theory, the mechanism of ozena development is triggered by the infectious agent – Klebsiella ozena, which is determined by bacteriological examination in 80% of patients with an unpleasant odor from the nose. The non-infectious theory of the development of ozena gives the leading role in the development of the disease to disorders of the autonomic system, which lead to degenerative processes in the nasal cavity. The endocrine theory of the development of ozena is confirmed by the fact that young women are most often affected by the disease.

Clinical presentation of ozena: characteristic symptoms

The main symptom of ozena is the appearance of an unpleasant odor from the patient's nose, and the smell is so pronounced that others avoid the patient's presence, and this negatively affects his psycho-emotional state. Characteristic is the fact that the patient himself does not feel an unpleasant smell from the nose at all.

Patients also complain of dryness in the nose, the formation of a large number of crusts  nasal cavity, difficulty in nasal breathing and impaired sense of smell up to anosmia. At the initial stages of ozena, it is the crusts that can cause a deterioration in the sense of smell, then atrophy of the olfactory receptors occurs, and the patient's sense of smell disappears completely.

Ozen diagnostics: what is revealed during rhinoscopy

Diagnosis of ozena is not a complicated process, since the characteristic clinical picture of the disease, namely such a rare symptom as the presence of an unpleasant smell from the nose, already indicates the development of ozena. With anterior rhinoscopy, yellow-green or brownish crusts are detected in both halves of the patient's nose, filling almost the entire nasal cavity, and extending to the nasopharynx and lower respiratory tract. Carrying out rhinoscopy after removal of crusts from the nose visualizes a very wide nasal cavity, it is possible to examine even the posterior wall of the nasopharynx, the mouth and ridges of the auditory tubes.

Conservative and surgical treatment of ozena

The treatment of ozena is a rather complicated process, the main task of which is to eliminate the unpleasant smell from the nose. For this purpose, conservative methods of therapy can be used: daily irrigation of the nasal cavity with an isotonic solution of sodium chloride with iodine, & nbsp; special suppositories, lubrication of the nasal cavity with Lugol's solution or iodine-glycerin. In parallel with this, patients are prescribed iron preparations, antibiotics, vitamin therapy. A more effective treatment for ozena is the use of surgical methods: narrowing of the nasal cavity due to the introduction of grafts or synthetic materials into the submucosal tissue of the side walls or nasal septum.