Table 1.

Basic clinical comparison across the follow-up.

	Initial (M0)	First Follow-up (M3)	Second Follow-up (M6)	Third Follow-up (M12)	p * (M0–M3)	p * (M0–M6)	p * (M0–M12)
C-reactive protein (CRP); mean ± SD (min-max)	6.54 ± 7.83 (1–20.3)	-	3.86 ± 3.71 (0.6–12)	5.17 ± 5.83 (0.6–23.1)	-	0.158	0.330
Visual analogue scale pain rating, resting; mean ± SD (min-max)	3.94 ± 2.56 (0–8)	1.24 ± 1.48 (0–4)	1.17 ± 1.62 (0–5)	0.56 ± 1.2 (0–4)	0.001	<0.001	<0.001
Visual analogue scale pain rating, movement; mean ± SD (min-max)	7.33 ± 1.72 (4–10)	3.82 ± 2.07 (1–7)	3.67 ± 2.03 (0–7)	3.17 ± 1.98 (0–7)	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001

* Pair-wise testing with t-test for paired samples; SD: standard deviation; M: months.