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Article History

Received: 4 November 2025

Accepted: 8 May 2026

First Online: 16 May 2026

Declarations

:

: This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (2024 revision) for medical research involving human subjects and human data. The study protocol was reviewed by the UHL Hospital Group Research Ethics Committee, University Hospital Limerick. The Committee granted a formal ethics waiver on the basis that the research involved retrospective analysis of fully anonymised clinical data, with no identifiable patient information accessed at any stage. In accordance with the Committee’s determination and consistent with Article 32 of the Declaration of Helsinki concerning the use of identifiable human material and data, the requirement for individual informed consent was waived because the dataset consisted solely of anonymised retrospective service data from which no individual could be identified.

: Not applicable. The study uses anonymised retrospective data and contains no identifiable information.

: The authors declare no competing interests.