RESULTS
The study cohort consisted of 270 patients. Among these patients, 169 were male (62.6%), and 101 were female (37.4%). The mean age of the cohort was 29.2±5.8 years [19-45]. While 132 (48.9%) patients did not consume any tobacco products (i.e., non-smokers), 96 (35.5%) were cigarette smokers, 27 (10%) were hookah smokers, and 15 (5.6%) patients were consuming both tobacco products regularly. Mean healing time was 10 days, and septal perforation was encountered in 10 patients (3.7%) (Table 1). 
A comparison regarding septal perforation rates revealed no significant difference between cigarette smokers and cigarette non-smokers (p=0.326) (Figure 1).
However, cigarette smoking significantly increased the healing time required after septoplasty; the healing time was significantly higher in the cigarette smoker group than the cigarette non-smoker group (p<0.001) (Figure 2).
The frequency of septal perforation was significantly higher in the group that smoked hookah than the group that did not (p=0.01) (Table 2). The healing time was significantly longer in the hookah smoker group than the hookah non-smoker group (p<0.001). Division of the entire study cohort as tobacco consumers and non-consumers and subsequent comparison in terms of healing times and septal perforation rates revealed that healing time was longer and septal perforation risk was higher in the tobacco consumer group (p=0.02 and p<0.001 respectively).
Among the hookah non-smokers, there was no significant difference between the cigarette smoker group and the cigarette non-smoker group regarding the frequency of septal perforation (p=0.165) (Table 3). Similarly, among the hookah smokers, there was no significant difference between the cigarette smoker group and the cigarette non-smoker group in terms of the frequency of septal perforation (p>0.99). On the other hand, among cigarette non-smokers, the frequency of septal perforation was significantly higher in the group that smoked hookah than the group that did not (p=0,016). In the cigarette smoking group, septal perforation frequency was higher in the hookah smoking group than the non-hookah smoking group. However, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.186).
Among the hookah non-smokers, the healing time of the cigarette smoker group was significantly longer than the non-cigarette smoker group (p<0.001) (Table 3). On the other hand, in the hookah smoking group, there was no significant difference between cigarette smokers and cigarette non-smokers in terms of healing time (p=0. 337). Among the cigarette non-smokers, the healing time of the patients who smoked hookah was significantly longer than the group of patients who did not smoke (p<0.001). Analysis of the cigarette smokers’ data revealed that the healing time of the group who smoked hookah was significantly longer than the group who did not smoke hookah (p=0.016).
Thus, the two primary outcomes analyzed in this study (i.e., healing time and septal perforation rate) were negatively affected by hookah smoking. However, cigarette smoking was found to affect the healing time but not the rate of septal perforation.