Effect of sperm morphology on clinical outcome parameters in ICSI cycles

To assess the effect of isolated teratozoospermia with a normal sperm count and total motility by means of the fertilization rates, embryo quality and clinical pregnancy rate only in ICSI cycles.

We retrospectively analyzed the records of patients who underwent ICSI at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Fertility and Reproductive Endocrinology between July 2001 and January 2010. Only patients with normal sperm count and total motility were recruited. The remaining cycles were further divided into two groups according to their sperm morphology with respect to Kruger's strict criteria. In Group 1, 537 consecutive cycles were enrolled whose sperm morphology was <4%. In Group 2, 118 cycles were identified with a morphology of > or = 4%.

A total of 655 ICSI cycles were included in the final analysis. The fertilization rates were 72.0% and 70.8% in Groups 1 and 2, respectively. There were no differences regarding embryo quality, clinical pregnancy and implantation rates between the two groups.

Our data suggest that detection of morphology defect has no value in the prediction of fertilization, embryo quality and clinical pregnancy in ICSI cycles.