Efficacy of Laser-Assisted Hatching on Pregnancy and Live-Birth Rates of Human Frozen-Thawed Embryos

Abstract

Unexplained repeated in-vitro fertilization (IVF) failure is a major problem that faces both genders. The present study aims to estimate the influence of the laser-assisted hatching (LAH) technique on implantation, clinical pregnancy and live-birth rates using human cryopreserved-thawed embryos produced by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Materials and methods: A total of 208 subjects was divided randomly into 100 subjects in the control group (Non-LAH), in which the uterine frozen embryo transfer (FET) was done directly; and 108 subjects in LAH group, in which laser shots were applied on day-3 frozenthawed embryos before uterine transfer. All groups were further subdivided into three female age categories (22-30; 31-35 & 36-40 years). Number of mature, fertilized oocytes, fertilization, clinical pregnancy and live-birth rates were determined according to age distribution. Results: Both pregnancy (37.0 %) and live-birth (57.5 %) rates in LAH group were insignificantly lower than Non-LAH control group having pregnancy and live-birth rates of (45.0 % and 73.3 %, respectively). LAH caused a mild increase in clinical outcomes in females aged over 36 years, but in contrast, no improvement was observed in younger subjects. Conclusion: Our experimental study did not support using LAH as a routine strategy in frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles.