Comparison between Microsurgical Varicocelectomy with and without Testicular Delivery for Treatment of Varicocele: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Main characteristics of the eligible studies included in this meta-analysis.

First author (reference)	Year	Design	Surgical approach	Follow-up	With TD	Without TD	Total	Age (mean ± SD)		Varicocele grade
								With TD	Without TD
Choi et al. [34]	2017	Prospective cohort study	Subinguinal	12 months	25	33	58	12.8 ± 3.08	13.2 ± 3.19	Ⅰ–Ⅲ
Wang et al. [14]	2020	RCT	Subinguinal	12 months	40	40	80	25 ± 11		Ⅱ–Ⅲ
Spinelli et al. [32]	2016	RCT	inguinal	12 months	35	35	70	14.6	14.4	NA
Allameh et al. [29]	2018	RCT	Subinguinal	6 months	200	197	397	25.9 ± 4.6	27.3 ± 6.1	Ⅲ
Jiang et al. [16]	2019	RCT	Subinguinal	12 months	49	49	98	26.76 ± 2.24	26.62 ± 2.98	Ⅱ–Ⅲ
Wald et al. [20]	2021	Retrospective cohort study	Subinguinal	15.8 weeks	162	151	313	35 (28–43) ^a	34 (28–39) ^a	Ⅰ–Ⅲ
Nie et al. [31]	2017	RCT	Subinguinal	6 months	20	20	40	26.7		NA
Fan [15]	2017	RCT	Subinguinal	6 months	38	45	83	28.32 ± 3.89	27.94 ± 3.46	Ⅰ–Ⅲ
Longhuan et al. [35]	2020	Retrospective cohort study	Subinguinal	NA	30	30	60	32.99 ± 2.33	32.36 ± 2.12	NA
Jin et al. [17]	2020	Prospective cohort study	Subinguinal	6 months	67	114	181	27.30 ± 3.69	27.75 ± 4.74	Ⅰ–Ⅲ
Liu et al. [18]	2019	RCT	Subinguinal	6 months	71	64	135	28.82 ± 3.68	27.95 ± 2.96	Ⅱ–Ⅲ
Peiting and Liqing [19]	2021	Retrospective cohort study	Subinguinal	12 months	38	46	84	28.65 ± 3.02	28.70 ± 2.98	Ⅱ–Ⅲ
Ramasamy and Schlegel [36]	2006	Retrospective cohort study	inguinal	24 months	55	110	165	NA		Ⅰ–Ⅲ
Xu [21]	2016	RCT	Subinguinal	12 months	50	50	100	26.06 ± 2.53	26.40 ± 2.90	Ⅱ–Ⅲ
Li et al. [33]	2017	RCT	Subinguinal	3 months	54	73	127	23.6	24.8	Ⅱ–Ⅲ
Hou et al. [30]	2015	RCT	Subinguinal	12 months	50	50	100	27.94 ± 3.46	28.32 ± 3.89	Ⅰ–Ⅲ
Yang et al. [37]	2018	Retrospective cohort study	Subinguinal	6 months	40	123	163	24.7 ± 5.9	27.6 ± 8.2	Ⅰ–Ⅲ

Note: RCT, randomized controlled trial; NA, not available; TD, testicular delivery. ^aMedian (interquartile range).