A retrospective follow-up study on intracytoplasmic sperm injection

Purpose: Genetic aspects of male subfertility and the novelty of intracytop lasmic sperm injection (ICSI) as a new technique can influence the developm ent of zygotes and children born after ICSI. Therefore, we evaluated the ou tcome of ICSI compared to in vitro fertilization (IVF). Methods: Data from medical records of 233 total pregnancies and the follow- up of 132 children born after IVF and 120 after ICSI were retrospectively a nalyzed. Results: No differences were found between ICSI and IVF for early embryonic development and obstetric outcome. In both groups the rate of women underg oing prenatal chromosomal diagnosis was low, 30.0%. The congenital malforam ation rate was 3.0% after IVF and 1.7% after ICSI, which was not significan tly different. Follow-up on development of children born after IVF and ICSI also showed no significant differences. Conclusions: Our results indicate that at this moment ICSI is a safe proced ure. However, a consistent prospective follow-up is still mandatory to excl ude possible risks.