Nakayama T, Fujiwara H, Yamada S, Tastumi K, Honda T, Fujii S
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan.
Fertil Steril. 1999 Jun;71(6):1014-8. doi: 10.1016/s0015-0282(99)00131-4.
To assess the effect of a assisted hatching technique using a piezo-micromanipulator on pregnancy rates in poor-prognosis infertile patients.
A prospective randomized study.
The Infertility and IVF unit of the Kyoto University Hospital.
PATIENT(S): Infertile patients who had been treated for >4 years and failed in previous IVF trials at least twice.
INTERVENTION(S): Two hundred forty-eight IVF cycles from 173 patients were divided into two groups: cycles with the transfer of embryos treated by assisted hatching and cycles with the transfer of nontreated embryos. Each group was subdivided into two groups according to embryo morphology: cycles in which three or two morphologically good-quality embryos were transferred and cycles in which one or no morphologically good-quality embryos were transferred. Assisted hatching was performed by a piezo-micromanipulator.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The clinical pregnancy rates and implantation rates.
RESULT(S): The clinical pregnancy and implantation rates were significantly higher in the assisted hatching group of patients with three or two good-quality embryos than in the other three groups.
CONCLUSION(S): The assisted hatching using a piezo-micromanipulator improved the pregnancy and implantation rates in poor-prognosis infertile patients with good-quality embryo transfer but had no effect in patients with low-quality embryo transfer.
