European journal of anaesthesiology
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Eur J Anaesthesiol
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Post-operative analgesic consumption is often used as a surrogate measure for pain; analyses of mean data assume a Gaussian distribution and use parametric statistics to assess statistical differences, often in small samples. We used a large individual patient dataset to examine the distribution of analgesic consumption, the validity of such analyses and alternative dichotomous outcomes. ⋯ Because of a highly skewed distribution, post-operative analgesic consumption is an uncertain method of measuring analgesic efficacy of an intervention designed to limit pain during and after surgery.