Statistical analyses
In our pilot study, the success rate of oral midazolam was approximately 50%, and that of intranasal dexmedetomidine combined with oral midazolam was approximately 80%. Based on the success rate in pilot study, the sample required was at least 38 participants per group, with a power of 80% at a 5% level of type 1 error.EpiData (version 3.1; EpiData Association, Odense, Denmark) was used for data entry and the statistical software SPSS Statistics (version 26.0; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used for data analyses. The significance threshold was set at 5%. Continuous data with normal distributions were expressed as means ± standard deviations, and the t-test was used for comparisons between groups. Continuous data without normal distributions were expressed as medians (interquartile ranges), and the Mann–Whitney U test was used for comparisons between groups. Categorical data are expressed as numbers (percentages), and the chi-square test (Pearson’s or Fisher’s exact test) was used for comparisons between groups.