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Article History

Received: 19 May 2024

Accepted: 21 October 2024

First Online: 25 October 2024

Declarations

:

: The study was designed and conducted in accordance with the guidelines outlined in the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki [ ]. The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board (IRB) at Beirut Arab University (Approval code: 2023-H-0089-P-R-0532). Additionally, approval was granted from the IRB and ethical committees of the participating hospitals (Approval code from Hospital No. 1: 2023-IRB-012, Approval code from Hospital No. 2: HOP-2023-006, Approval code from Hospital No. 3: 6/2023). The process of data collection involved a thorough review of patients’ medical records. The medical records were de-identified and anonymized to protect patient privacy and confidentiality. The research team did establish any direct contact or follow-up with the patients. Informed consent from patients was waived for this study due to its retrospective observational design, where data collection occurred after patients’ discharge or death, and because no patient identifiers were obtained. This waiver was granted by the IRB at Beirut Arab University (Approval code: 2023-H-0089-P-R-0532), as well as the IRBs and ethical committees of the participating hospitals (Hospital 1: 2023-IRB-012, Hospital 2: HOP-2023-006, Hospital 3: 6/2023), in accordance with the guidelines of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki [ ], which allows for the waiver of consent when the research involves minimal risk and does not adversely affect the rights and welfare of the subjects.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.