THE EFFECT OF PREIMPLANTATION EMBRYO DEVELOPMENT ARREST ON ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TREATMENT RESULTS

Objective: During assisted reproductive treatments, human preimplantation embryo's development can sometimes may stop cleavage at various stages due to in vitro culture media, patient age, ovarian stimulation protocols, and gametes. Implantation failure and abortion can be observed after the transfer of other embryos, which have normal development, in couples with developmental arrest. On the other hand, the underlying causes of embryonic arrest cannot be explained clearly. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of early embryonic arrest on the success of assisted reproductive techniques. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study of intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (ICSI-ET), the cycle of 620 infertile couples diagnosed with ovulatory factor, tubal factor, endometriosis, unexplained infertility, and male factor between 2010 and 2018 were evaluated. The study groups consisted of patients with embryonic arrest and control patients whose embryos developed at normal speed without interruption. The study data was analyzed using the uni-directional variable analysis (ANOVA) and the Chi-square test. Results: In the study population, the drug dose, oocyte count, fertilization rate, and high and low grade embryo ratios were increased in the direction of arrest. On the one hand, pregnancy rates decreased (p<0.0001). On the other hand, there was no difference between the two groups in live birth rates (p=0.449). Conclusion: In several studies, it was stated that the presence of arrested embryos in the embryo cohort had negative effects on the success of assisted reproductive techniques. The findings of this study support that claim.