TRANSPORT IN-VITRO FERTILIZATION INTRACELLULAR SPERM INJECTION - A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED STUDY

We performed a prospective randomized clinical trial to investigate wh ether long distance oocyte transport prior to an intracytoplasmic sper m injection (ICSI) procedure influences fertilization rates, embryo qu ality and/or embryo implantation rates, After informed consent, 100 in fertile couples booked for ICSI treatment were randomized into two gro ups, In group 1 (n = 50), patients were stimulated and monitored in Ro tterdam (The Netherlands), and oocyte retrieval, ICSI procedure and em bryo transfer took place in Gent (Belgium), In group 2 (n = 50), patie nts were stimulated, monitored and punctured in Rotterdam and the oocy tes mere transported in their follicular fluid in an isothermic transp ort box to Gent, where the ICSI procedure and the embryo transfer took place, In both groups the stimulation and monitoring regimen, punctur e technique, laboratory conditions and transfer policy were identical, In both groups, the number of fertilized oocytes (7.13 +/- 0.65 versu s 5.53 +/- 0.60, P = 0.08), the number of transferred embryos (2.36 +/ - 0.09 versus 2.40 +/- 0.11, P = 0.87) , and the embryo implantation r ate [20/113 (17.7%) versus 19/103 (18.4%), P = 0.89] was similar, In g roup 1, the number of retrieved oocytes was higher (10.83 +/- 0.95 ver sus 8.44 +/- 0.93, P = 0.05). The total score of the embryos obtained (18.90 +/- 1.73 versus 12.64 +/- 1.26, P = 0.01)1 the number of good q uality embryos (4.63 +/- 0.49 versus 2.98 +/- 0.38, P = 0.02), the mea n score of the transferred embryos (3.32 +/- 0.11 versus 2.94 +/- 0.13 , P = 0.05) and the number of embryos available for cryopreservation ( 2.70 +/- 0.45 versus 1.48 +/- 0.38, P = 0.03) were significantly highe r in group 1, Therefore, long distance transport of oocytes prior to I CSI does not affect oocyte fertilization and embryo implantation rates , although a negative effect on embryo quality cannot be excluded.