CLINICAL VALIDATION OF A NEW, ULTRAFAST WARMING PROTOCOL, RESULTING IN EQUIVALENT IMPLANTATION RATES AND SIGNIFICANT TIME SAVINGS VERSUS ROUTINE WARMING PROTOCOL, A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMIZED CONTROL.

Over time, the procedures within the IVF lab have become more labor intensive resulting in longer procedure times and embryologist burnout. One of these procedures is embryo warming. Although not technically difficult, it takes approximately 15 minutes for an embryo to be moved between TS (thawing solution), DS (dilute solution), and WS (washing solution). We have modified the standard warming technique to merely moving the embryo to TS solution for 1 min and then immediately into culture media. This method eliminates the need for DS and WS while also decreasing time needed to complete the warming process. It is the objective of this study to compare outcomes of embryos warmed with the standard protocol (15 minutes) versus embryos warmed with the ultrafast protocol (1 min). All embryos were warmed with Fujifilm® warming media. Only patients undergoing a frozen embryo transfer (FET) of a single euploid blastocyst were included in this study. Patients were randomized between two groups: embryos warmed with the standard protocol (Group 1; 1 minute TS, 4 minutes DS, 8 minutes WS, and transfer to culture media) and embryos warmed using the ultrafast protocol (Group 2; 1 minute TS and transfer to culture media). All blastocysts were transferred utilizing standard of care protocols. Embryology time savings, pregnancy rates, and implantation rates were compared between groups. A total of 100 patients were randomized between the two groups; 51 in group 1 and 49 in group 2. The average age between group 1 and group 2 was not significant, 35.6±4.4 and 35.9±4.4 years, respectively (NS). Pregnancy rates between group 1 and group 2 was not significant, 34/51 (66.7%) and 40/49 (83.3%), respectively (0.1395). Implantation rate between group 1 and group 2 was not significant, 25/51 (49.0%) and 30/49 (62.5%), respectively (0.3052). This study demonstrates that a significantly quicker embryo warming technique provides comparable pregnancy and implantation rates, while saving over 14 minutes of tech time per warming, a total of 1,400 tech minutes per 100 thaws. Additionally, there is a trend towards higher pregnancy and implantation rates with the ultrafast warming. Further studies are currently being conducted to determine if this trend is significant.