Almost Nothing - Not Even Bariatric Surgery for Obesity - Changes Olfactory Sensitivity

Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy Improves Olfaction Sensitivity in Morbidly Obese Patients

“…Olfaction was shown to be affected by alimentation and altered by eating and metabolic disorders, including obesity [13,17]. Studies with humans and model organisms, especially obese-prone rats, even suggested the differences in olfactory abilities as a factor for the development of obesity [18,24].…”

“…On the contrary, Graham et al [30] in their study on 103 patients who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery reported change in the smell of 42 % of the subjects about 2 years after surgery. Recently, Enck et al [13] showed no improvement in olfaction of eight morbidly obese patients after bariatric surgery in a follow-up duration of 12 months. However, in this study, the mean TDI score evaluated 6 months after LSG was found to be improved by 64 % (Fig.…”

“…Olfaction is an inseparable part of gustatory sensing and alimentation, and olfactory functions are known to change during hunger and fasting episodes [13][14][15][16][17]. The effects of a number of eating and metabolic disorders in olfactory assessment are relatively well known; however, there are only a few studies investigating the effect of obesity on olfaction and there is no data on the changes in olfactory abilities of morbidly obese patients after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) [13-15, 17, 18].…”

Improved Gustatory Sensitivity in Morbidly Obese Patients After Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy

“…Median whole test scores of the patients were increased from 11.5 (range, [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] preoperatively to 14 in first (range, [12][13][14][15][16] and third (range, [14][15][16] months.…”

“…1,2 Gustatory sensitivity, namely, taste acuity, is associated with oral stimulation, which determines food choice, amount consumed, and initiation and sensation of eating and thereby directly affects the nutritional status of a person. [3][4][5][6][7] Although taste is one of the important factors in a patient's quality of life, 8,9 compared to numerous studies on the olfactory sensitivity of obese patients, [10][11][12] there are only a number of studies in gustatory sensitivity of obese patients before or after surgical treatment. In addition, most of these studies focused on the change in sweet taste sensitivity of obese patients, probably due to association of leptin, a hormone regulating food intake, energy expenditure, and body weight with sweet taste threshold.…”