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Article History

Received: 3 June 2026

Accepted: 3 July 2026

First Online: 30 July 2026

Declarations

Conflict of Interest: Yasmine Grassi, Alessio Lo Cascio, Giorgio Sapienza, Flavia Sanzo, and Alessandra Casuccio have nothing to disclose. Sebastiano Mercadante has nothing to disclose. Sebastiano Mercadante is an Editorial Board member of Pain and Therapy . Sebastiano Mercadante was not involved in the selection of peer reviewers for the manuscript nor any of the subsequent editorial decisions.

Ethical Approval: This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and its later amendments. The original clinical protocol under which these patients were treated and prospectively followed (2014–2015) was conducted as part of routine departmental practice; the present secondary analysis of the anonymized dataset was specifically reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Palermo (Comitato Etico Provinciale di Palermo 1, Verbale n. 14, 06/06/2024). Written informed consent to participate in the original clinical protocol, and for the subsequent use of anonymized data for research and publication purposes, was obtained from all participants prior to their inclusion. No identifiable personal information is included in this article; therefore, separate consent to publish was not required.