Efficacy of a human embryo transfer medium: a prospective, randomized clinical trial study

Purpose: The aim of this prospective, randomized trial was to evaluate the efficacy of Embryo-Glue (R) stop as a human embryo transfer medium in IVF/ICSI cycles. Method: A total of 815 nonselected patients undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment between September 2003 and February 2004 were randomly allocated into the test (417 patients) and the control (398 patients) groups. In both groups, embryos were cultured in G-1 (TM) ver 3, supplemented with 10% recombinant human albumin. On the day of embryo transfer (day 3), the best or good quality embryos were selected for intrauterine transfer. In the test group, the selected embryos were treated with EmbryoGlue (R) stop prior to the transfer, whereas in the control group they were transferred without any treatment. Results: The patients' characteristics such as age and the number of ART cycles and also the number of patients in each indication of infertility and the number of embryos selected for transfer were all similar between the two groups. In the test group, the clinical pregnancy rate in the tubal factors and the implantation rate in the tubal factors and recurrent implantation failures increased significantly compared with those in the control group. In the test group, life birth and the triplet delivery rates increased significantly compared with those in the control group. Conclusion: EmbryoGlue (R) stop is a useful embryo transfer medium, and at least in some infertile patients it can improve clinical implantation and ongoing pregnancy rates.