The Reliability of the Tracheoesophageal Groove and the Ligament of Berry as Landmarks for Identifying the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve: A Cadaveric Study and Meta-Analysis

Table 6

Subgroup analysis for relationship of the Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve to the Tracheoesophageal Groove.

	Number of studies (number of nerves)	Inside TEG: % (95% CI)	Outside TEG: % (95% CI)	: % (95% CI)	Cochran’s Q, value
Overall	23 (5970)	63.7 (55.3–77.7)	36.3 (28.3–44.7)	97.4 (96.8–97.9)	<0.001
Cadaveric	15 (1912)	65.8 (50.7–79.5)	34.2 (20.5–49.3)	97.7 (97.1–98.2)	<0.001
Intraoperative	8 (4058)	60.1 (49.9–70.0)	39.9 (30.0–50.1)	97.0 (95.7–97.9)	<0.001
Asia	10 (1757)	75.9 (60.2–88.9)	24.1 (11.1–39.8)	97.8 (97.0–98.4)	<0.001
Europe	9 (3678)	50.9 (38.0–63.7)	49.1 (36.3–62.0)	97.7 (96.8–98.3)	<0.001
North America	3 (384)	57.5 (45.4–69.1)	42.5 (30.9–54.6)	78.8 (32.3–93.3)	0.009
Right	10 (1597)	62.1 (48.1–75.2)	37.9 (24.8–51.9)	95.3 (93.2–96.8)	<0.001
Left	10 (1554)	68.0 (56.4–78.6)	32.0 (21.4–43.6)	93.4 (21.4–43.6)	<0.001
Sensitivity (≥ 100 nerves)	14 (5334)	54.9 (45.3–64.3)	45.1 (35.7–54.7)	97.6 (97.0–98.2)	<0.001