Dados do Trabalho

Title

Incubation time to ICSI does not affect laboratory results

Objective

To evaluate whether incubation time from oocyte collection to ICSI fertilization affects laboratory results.

Methods

A retrospective study which included all fresh ICSI cycles from January to June 2023. The fertilization procedure was performed between three to six hours after ovarian aspiration (i.e. 39 to 42 hours after hCG trigger). Cycles were divided in two groups according to the incubation period until ICSI: group 1 [≤ 4 hours (or 180-240 minutes)] and group 2 [>4 hours (or 241-360 minutes)]. Age of patients, AMH (ng/mL) and the number of oocytes retrieved were assessed. The primary laboratory outcome compared was good quality blastocyst rate, and the secondary were: fertilization rate, good quality cleavage embryo rate, and blastulation rate. Statistical analysis was conducted by paired test and results, expressed as mean ± standard deviation, were considered significant if p<0.05.

Results

There were 96 ICSI cycles included, 77 of which were performed up to 4 hours and 19 after 4 hours of oocyte collection. The average time to ICSI was 215 (minimum 180 and maximum 348 minutes). The mean age of patients [36.13 ± 4.48 vs 35.94 ± 4.80 (p=0.876)], AMH [2.72 ± 2.71 vs 2.47 ± 1.97 (p=0.707)] and number of oocytes retrieved [8.82 ± 6.33 vs 10.58 ± 13.06 (p=0.396)] were not significantly different for groups 1 and 2 respectively. Moreover, no statistical difference were observed in relation to all laboratory results evaluated between groups: good quality blastocyst rate [40.0% ± 0.33 vs 31.4% ± 0.36 (p=0.439)], fertilization rate [83.9% ± 0.23 vs 86.5% ± 0.16 (p=0.639)], good quality cleavage embryo rate [53.3% ± 0.30 vs 52.4% ± 0.28 (p=0.912)] and blastulation rate [55.2% ± 0.27 vs 60.9% ± 0.35 (p=0.548)].

Conclusion

IVF laboratory results are not affected by the incubation time to ICSI. Therefore, embryologists can perform the fertilization safely from three to six hours after ovarian aspiration.

Keywords

fertilization, ICSI, blastulation, time to ICSI.