Comparative analysis
We executed the bivariate comparative analysis considering two post hoc
direct exploratory comparisons (binary): perioperative vs baseline (t1
vs t0), extended follow-up vs baseline (t2 vs t0). We tested the
differences with the Wilcoxon signed rank test for dependent numerical
measures and with McNemar’s exact test for dependent categorical
measures. We did not observe normality of the numerical data, so we
opted for these non-parametric methods.