99 of 100 patients would dismiss the side effects without a second thought.
Compared to a tumor growing in his or her brain, the loss of smell, I suspect, mean very little.
But when dealing with a patient whose olfactory nerve is inextricably linked with who she is, then perhaps the surgeon would do best to go over those risks personally with the patient, instead of turfing the duty to a resident.
Perhaps that surgeon might even do the procedure, instead of handing the scalpel to a doctor-in-training who has never performed it before.