An embryologist carries out sperm preparation before an intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure at Mỹ Đức Hospital in HCM City. — Photo courtesy of the hospital

HCM CITY — An article about a research study led by doctors at Mỹ Đức Hospital’s HOPE Research Centre in HCM City was published in The Lancet, a highly respected international medical journal, on Friday (April 23).

The study was about "intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus conventional in-vitro fertilisation in couples with infertility in whom the male partner has normal total sperm count and motility". 

Intracytoplasmic sperm injections were first applied in the 1990s to overcome low and unpredictable fertilisation rates from the use of conventional in-vitro fertilisation in couples with severe male factor infertility, according to the study.

The past two decades have seen a rapid rise in the use of intracytoplasmic sperm injections, even though the rate of male infertility has remained unchanged over this time.

The study found that in infertile couples in whom the male partner has a normal total sperm count and motility, live birth after the first embryo transfer, and cumulative ongoing pregnancy resulting in livebirth at 12 months after random allocation from the initiated cycle, were similar in couples undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection compared with conventional IVF. 

Doctors at Mỹ Đức Hospital’s HOPE Research Centre worked in co-operation with counterparts at An Sinh Hospital, HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, and Monash University and University of Adelaide in Australia.

The study was conducted on 1,064 infertile couples with male partners who had a normal total sperm count and motility.

The open-label, multicentre, randomised trial was done at IVF centres at Mỹ Đức Hospital and An Sinh Hospital.

The study was presented at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in July last year. — VNS