'There is only one thing that is truly important in an IVF laboratory: everything' Cairo Consensus Guidelines on IVF...

This proceedings report presents the outcomes from an international expert meeting to establish consensus guidelines on IVF culture conditions. Topics reviewed and discussed were: embryo culture - basic principles and interactions; temperature in the IVF laboratory; humidity in culture; carbon dioxide control and medium pH; oxygen tension for embryo culture; workstations - design and engineering; incubators - maintaining the culture environment; micromanipulation - maintaining a steady physcochemical environment; handling practices; assessment practices; culture media - buffering and pH, general composition and protein supplementation, sequential or single-step media for human embryo culture; use and management - cold chain and storage; test equipment - calibration and certification; and laboratory equipment and real-time monitoring. More than 50 consensus guideline points were established under these general headings.