Research Article

Risk Factors for Predicting Lymph Nodes Posterior to Right Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve (LN-prRLN) Metastasis in Thyroid Papillary Carcinoma: A Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Clinicopathological characteristics associated with metastasis to LN-rRLN in PTC patients.

VariablesNumber of studiesLN-rRLN
Metastasis (-)Metastasis (+)

Gender11<0.001
 Male1633203
 Female6632454
Age (y)60.001
 <453227270
 ≥453847241
Tumour location80.076
 Upper22060
 Middle568107
 Lower34182
Tumour size (cm)11
 ≤14301113<0.001
 >12143207
 <19881560.069
 ≥1701248
Multifocality100.005
 Yes2759253
 No5038355
Capsular invasion5<0.001
 Yes
 No
Extrathyroidal invasion9<0.001
 Yes3687224
 No3106194
Lateral LN metastasis9<0.001
 Yes1022242
 No6603333
VIa central LN metastasis4<0.001
 Yes334171
 No70970
Central LN metastasis5<0.001
 Yes3099340
 No358728