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.