Statistical analysis
Mean and standard deviation for age, length of stay and postoperative days were calculated for each Group of patients. T test was performed to investigate whether the period of treatment could influence these three parameters. Patients’ gender, provenance and pathology were compared between the different Groups using Chi-square test. The difference in the proportion of pathologies treated between the considered 2-months periods was tested by means of Fisher’s exact test. In all cases ap value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Post hoc analysis involved pairwise comparison using multiple Fisher’s exact tests (2x2) with a Bonferroni adjustment; for this analysis the statistical significance was accepted at p < .003. Data analysis was performed using appropriate software (IBM SPSS® Statistics version 25; IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York 10504, USA).