Stellate Ganglion Block for COVID-induced Parosmia
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT06253806. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Stellate Ganglion Block for the Treatment of COVID-19-Induced Parosmia: Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Randomized Clinical Trial
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Chronic olfactory dysfunction, both hyposmia and parosmia, from the COVID-19 pandemic is a growing public health crisis with up to 1.2 million people in the United States affected. Olfactory dysfunction impacts one's quality of life significantly by decreasing the enjoyment of foods, creating environmental safety concerns, and affecting one's ability to perform certain jobs. Olfactory loss is also an independent predictor of anxiety, depression, and even mortality. Recent research by our group (unpublished data) and suggests that parosmias, moreso than hyposmias, can result in increased rates of anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation. While the pandemic has increased the interest by the scientific community in combating the burgeoning health crisis, few effective treatments currently exist for olfactory dysfunction. Persistent symptoms after an acute COVID-19 infection, or "Long COVID" symptoms, have been hypothesized to be a result of sympathetic positive feedback loops and dysautonomia. Stellate ganglion blocks have been proposed to treat this hyper-sympathetic activation by blocking the sympathetic neuronal firing and resetting the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Studies prior to the COVID-19 pandemic have supported a beneficial effect of stellate ganglion blocks on olfactory dysfunction, and recent news reports and a published case series have described a dramatic benefit in both olfactory function and other long COVID symptoms in patients receiving stellate ganglion blocks. A previous pilot study using stellate ganglion blocks of 20 participants with persistent COVID-19 olfactory dysfunction resulted modest improvements in subjective olfactory function, smell identification, and olfactory-specific quality-of-life, but it lacked a control group. Therefore, we propose a double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial assessing the efficacy of a stellate ganglion block versus saline injection in a total of up to 140 participants with persistent COVID-19-associated olfactory dysfunction.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT06253806
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 2
- Enrollment
- 48 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 70 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Oct 24, 2023
- Primary completion
- Sep 15, 2024
- Completion
- Sep 15, 2024
- Last update posted
- Nov 9, 2025
2023 – 2024
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nyssa Fox Farrell | St Louis | Missouri | 63122 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT06253806, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Nov 9, 2025 · Synced Sep 5, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT06253806 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.