A novel holding pipette applied in blastocyst biopsy: avoiding sliding and improving efficiency.

OBJECTIVE

To demonstrate a novel holding pipette, designed to prevent sliding during the biopsy procedures, and evaluate its performance by comparing the biopsy results of using the novel holding pipette and the conventional holding pipette.

DESIGN

Using images and videos to present the sliding that may occur during biopsy procedures and introduce the mechanism of a novel pipette for reducing the sliding occurrence and demonstrate its step-by-step application in blastocyst biopsy employing the flicking method.

SUBJECTS: Embryos (blastocysts).

INTERVENTION: Different biopsy protocols: using the novel holding pipette (beveled design) or conventional holding pipette for mechanical blunt dissection.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Occurrence rate of sliding, dissecting time, successful biopsy rate and blastocyst cryosurvival rate, and clinical pregnancy rate.

RESULTS

Compared with the conventional holding pipette, the novel holding pipette significantly reduced the occurrence rate of sliding and the time required for dissecting. The occurrence rate of sliding decreased from 9.00% to 1.00% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.02-0.45); the dissecting time decreased from 25.80 to 8.03 seconds (95% CI, 16.44-19.09); the successful 1-time dissecting rate increased from 90.00% to 99.00% (95% CI, 2.54-47.72). There were no significant differences in the successful biopsy rate (conventional, 99.11%; novel, 99.53%), blastocyst cryosurvival rate (conventional, 98.99%; novel, 99.34%), and clinical pregnancy rate (conventional, 55.78%; novel, 64.90%) between the two methods.

CONCLUSION

The application of the novel holding pipette significantly reduced the occurrence rate of sliding and dissecting time but had no adverse effect on biopsy results, cryosurvival, and pregnancy outcomes. Moreover, aside from the innovative beveled design, no other alterations were introduced, preserving the unvarying holding efficacy and making it applicable for intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedures.