A prospective randomized controlled trial comparing two embryo transfer catheters in an ART program.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the performance of the Cook Sydney IVF (SIVF) embryo transfer (ET) catheter and the Edwards-Wallace (EW) ET catheter.


METHODS
Prospective randomized controlled clinical trial with an intention-to-treat analysis.


METHODS
Two-center study.


METHODS
Four hundred consecutive women <40 years undergoing ET with two fresh embryos.


METHODS
Women were randomly allocated to undergo ET with either the EW or the SIVF catheter, with possible catheter change in case of insertion difficulties.


METHODS
Live birth and clinical pregnancy rates.


RESULTS
Two hundred two women were allocated to the SIVF catheter and 198 to the EW catheter. No significant differences in the clinical pregnancy rates (odds ratio [OR] 0.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.66-1.47) and live-birth rates (OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.72-1.65) were found. The EW catheter had to be changed more often than the SIVF catheter (OR 9.5, 95% CI 3.3-27.5) because of catheter insertion problems.


CONCLUSIONS
The pregnancy and live birth rates were not significantly different with the two catheters, but catheter insertion failure was significantly more common with the EW catheter than with the SIVF catheter.
IVF Kliniken CURA, Malmö, Sweden. pia.saldeen@telia.com
Pia
P
Saldeen
Ahmed M
AM
Abou-Setta
Torbjörn
T
Bergh
Per
P
Sundström
Jan
J
Holte
D000328:Adult; D002404:Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D050498:Live Birth / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D018873:Pregnancy Rate; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome