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Routine laser assisted hatching results in significantly increased clincal pregnancies
1Assisted Conception Unit, Women's Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar. jaffarali@excite.com
Purpose:
To elucidate the appropriateness of current indications for assisted hatching (AH) in cleavage stage human embryos and to confirm our preliminary findings that only young patients (about 67%) benefit from AH.
Methods:
Prior to transfer, 2 of 3 embryos selected for ET were subjected to laser assisted hatching (LAH). Control group consisted of patients matched by similar characteristics and protocol except LAH was not performed.
Results:
The clinical pregnancy rate in women < or = 36 years was 64.9% (24/37) for embryos subjected to LAH but was significantly lower (p = 0.029) in the control (33.3%; 10/30). The implantation rate in women < or = 36 years in the test group was 38.1% (40/105) that was significantly higher than that of the control group (17.5%, 14/80; p = 0.0039).
Conclusions:
LAH is beneficial for women < or = 36 years but not for women > or = 37 years, for embryos with thin zonae (< or = 16 micron) but not with thick zonae (> or = 17 micron), and for those with repeated failures (37-50%).