Table 4.

Distance between the greater palatine foramen and surrounding anatomical landmarks

	Total number of studies	Total number of subjects	Pooled mean (95% CI) [mm]	Cochrane’s Q	I2 (95% CI) [%]	p value
GPF–PNSa	8	2358	17.21 (16.34–18.09)	345.96	98.0 (97.2–98.6)	p < 0.0001
Asia	4	380	17.06 (15.57–18.56)	198.31	98.5 (97.6–99.0)	p < 0.0001
Europe	2	1450	18.04 (15.94–20.15)	105.84	99.1 (98.2–99.5)	p < 0.0001
GPF–PBHP	24	4349	2.56 (1.90–3.22)	276,374.89	100.0	p = 0
Africa	2	465	3.71 (0.83–6.59)	43.02	97.7 (94.3–99.0)	p < 0.0001
Asia	17	2030	4.16 (3.17–5.15)	262,382.79	100.0	p = 0
Europe	3	1600	4.18 (1.83–6.54)	79.92	97.5 (95.1–98.7)	p < 0.0001
South America	2	254	3.41 (0.53–6.30)	0.11	0.0	p = 0.74
GPF–ANSb	4	365	46.24 (44.30–48.18)	90.68	96.7 (94.1–98.2)	p < 0.0001
GPF–MMS	38	5379	15.22 (15.00–15.43)	10,090.72	99.6 (99.6–99.7)	p = 0
Africa	3	565	15.13 (14.36–15.89)	42.13	95.3 (89.4–97.9)	p = 0.075
Asia	26	2506	15.14 (14.88–15.40)	9776.26	99.7 (99.7–99.8)	p = 0
Europe	4	1773	15.76 (15.10–16.42)	68.67	95.6 (91.7–97.7)	p < 0.0001
South America	5	535	15.21 (14.61–15.81)	56.23	92.9 (86.4–96.3)	p < 0.0001
GPF–IF	23	4404	37.32 (36.19–38.45)	3837.15	99.4 (99.4–99.5)	p = 0
Africa	2	520	38.23 (37.70–38.75)	2.68	62.6 (62.5–62.6)	p < 0.0001
Asia	16	2113	36.87 (35.51–38.22)	2078.70	99.3 (99.0–99.5)	p < 0.0001
Europe	2	1450	36.79 (31.69–41.89)	353.06	99.7 (99.6–99.8)	p < 0.0001
South America	3	321	39.47 (35.81–43.12)	173.63	98.8 (98.1–99.3)	p < 0.0001

CI confidence interval, GPF greater palatine foramen, PNS posterior nasal spine, PBHP posterior border of hard palate, ANS anterior nasal spine, MMS midline maxillary suture, IF incisive foramen

^aTwo studies [8, 63] were excluded from the subgroup analysis due to being the only studies in their own respective subgroups

^bSubgroup analysis for GPF–ANS was not performed due to the low number of studies