Anesthesia practices in the United States common to in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers.
OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to characterize and describe anesthesia practice in programs performing IVF in the United States.


METHODS
We used a telephone survey requiring respondents to be either the program director, a physician, or a nurse familiar with the practice. Two hundred seven (78%) Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) registered programs agreed to participate. Programs were divided by geographic region and type of practice (academic versus private).


RESULTS
Ninety-one private (68%) and 41 academic (56%) programs used personnel provided by the Department of Anesthesiology. Conscious sedation was performed most commonly (95%). The remaining 5% used primarily either general, regional, or local anesthesia. Typical recovery times were 90 to 120 min. Average costs of anesthetic administration were $300- $400 and were similar among groups except for the Eastern academic programs, with a higher mean cost of $543. Programs using personnel from anesthesiology reported higher costs compared to programs utilizing their own staff ($391 +/- 15 vs $157 +/- 11; P < 0.05). Complications were infrequent (< 10%); no hospitalizations or serious life-threatening incidents were reported.


CONCLUSIONS
A large number of programs safely used their own trained personnel to deliver anesthesia, and realized a significant reduction in cost.
Ditkoff
E C
EC
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, New York 10032, USA.
Plumb
J
J
Selick
A
A
Sauer
M V
MV
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D000700:Analgesics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000758:Anesthesia / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006261:Headache / Q000150:complications; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009325:Nausea / Q000150:complications; D010823:Physician Assistants; D014481:United States; D014839:Vomiting / Q000150:complications; D000078329:Workforce
D000700:Analgesics