2.7. Statistical Methods
NRS
The data collected were indexed in Excel. The aim was to detect a mean difference in NRS (0–10) between the two groups. A power analysis was conducted with the type I error set at 0.05 and the type II error at 0.15 (85% power). The estimated sample size was 45 patients from each group to detect the minimal clinically significant difference in NRS of 2.6 units [Through the use of the Shapiro–Wilk test, the normality of our collected data was verified. In the text and the tables, we have reported continuous variables, expressed as means and standard deviations, and categorical variables, expressed as absolute numbers and percentages.Regarding the statistical analysis of the data, we used the 