A prospective, randomized comparison of two commercial media for ICSI and embryo culture.

Abstract

The aim of this prospective, randomized study was to compare the results obtained in ICSI with two culture media, P-1 (Irvine Scientific) and IVF-50 (Scandinavian IVF Science). A total of 182 patients undergoing ICSI treatment were randomly included in this study and divided in two groups: Group I: P-1 medium (n = 91) or Group II: IVF-50 medium (n = 91). All the embryos were transferred on the second day. Patient age did not differ (p = .29) between Group I (34.8 +/- 4.8) and Group II (34.0 +/- 4.5). The number of oocytes retrieved from Group I (10.6 +/- 6.7) was also similar (p = .49) to that retrieved from Group II (11.1 +/- 6.4). In addition, there was no difference (p = .25) in the number of oocytes retrieved at metaphase II between Group I (7.9 +/- 4.6) and Group II (8.7 +/- 4.6). Normal fertilization rates, abnormal fertilization rates, and cleavage rates were similar (p = .62, p = .48, and p = .9, respectively) between Group I (68.4 +/- 23.3%, 6.7 +/- 10.3%, and 98.7 +/- 4.6%) and Group II (65.3 +/- 26.2%, 9.0 +/- 13.8%, and 98.9 +/- 3.9%, respectively). The embryo score was also similar (p = .62) for both groups (Group I: 31.9 +/- 14.0 and Group II: 33.4 +/- 15.8). There was no difference in the number of embryos transferred (p = .69) between Group I (2.8 +/- 1.0) and Group II (2.8 +/- 1.1). In addition, pregnancy rates/puncture, pregnancy rates/transfer, implantation rates, and abortion rates were also similar for Group I (36.2%, 37.0%, 17.4%, and 12.1%, respectively) and Group II (31.8%, 33.7%, 15.8%, and 10.3%, respectively) (p = .64, p = .75, p = .72, and p = 1.0, respectively). There were no differences in the results obtained with culture media P-1 (Irvine Scientific) and IVF-50 (Scandinavian IVF Science) for ICSI and embryo culture.