A retrospective follow-up study on intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

PURPOSE: Genetic aspects of male subfertility and the novelty of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) as a new technique can influence the development of zygotes and children born after ICSI. Therefore, we evaluated the outcome of ICSI compared to in vitro fertilization (IVF).

METHODS

Data from medical records of 233 total pregnancies and the follow-up of 132 children born after IVF and 120 after ICSI were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS

No differences were found between ICSI and IVF for early embryonic development and obstetric outcome. In both groups the rate of women undergoing prenatal chromosomal diagnosis was low, 30.0%. The congenital malformation rate was 3.0% after IVF and 1.7% after ICSI, which was not significantly different. Follow-up on development of children born after IVF and ICSI also showed no significant differences.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that at this moment ICSI is a safe procedure. However, a consistent prospective follow-up is still mandatory to exclude possible risks.