Humid versus dry incubator: a prospective, randomized, controlled trial

Area of Science:

• Reproductive Medicine
• Embryology
• In Vitro Fertilization

Background:

• Optimizing in vitro culture conditions is crucial for human embryo development.
• Incubator humidity may significantly impact embryo viability and implantation potential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of dry versus humidified incubators on human embryo development ex vivo.
• To assess the impact of incubator humidity on clinical and ongoing pregnancy rates.

Main Methods:

• Prospective, double-blind, randomized controlled trial involving 297 women undergoing in vitro fertilization.
• Embryos were cultured in either dry or humidified incubators from day 0 to day 5/6.
• Ongoing pregnancy rate was the primary outcome measure.

Main Results:

• Dry culture led to significantly lower clinical and ongoing pregnancy rates (OR 0.57; 95% CI, 0.36-0.91).
• Embryo quality, compaction, blastocyst formation, and cryopreservation rates were significantly reduced in dry culture conditions.
• Lower embryo quality and compaction on day 3 (OR 0.38; 95% CI, 0.32-0.45) and blastocyst rates on day 5 (OR 0.39; 95% CI, 0.33-0.46) were observed.

Conclusions:

• Cultivating human embryos ex vivo in dry incubators significantly decreases implantation and pregnancy rates.
• Humidified culture conditions appear more beneficial for human embryo development and successful pregnancy.
• Larger multicenter, randomized controlled trials are recommended to validate these findings.