title: Laser assisted zona thinning technique has no beneficial effect on the ART outcomes of two different maternal age groups.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Laser assisted zona thinning is a technique used for facilitating embryo's hatching process and is commonly used for the embryos of poor prognosis patients with advanced maternal age, repeated implantation failures, poor embryo quality or thick zona pellucida. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of zona thinning on both good or poor prognosis patients of two different age groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated two different age groups (group 1: <35 years and group 2: ≥35 years ) and compared the effect of assisted zona thinning (groups 1A and 2A) versus not-thinned controls (groups 1B and 2B) in both groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The clinical pregnancy rates were 57% and 56% in groups 1A and 1B (p = 0.86), 43% and 38% in groups 2A and 2B (p = 0.59) respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that laser assisted zona thinning of day 3 embryos has no beneficial effect on clinical pregnancy and implantation outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Medicana Camlica Hospital, 34764 Uskudar, Istanbul, Turkey. pkutlu@medicana.com.tr
authors.forename: Pelin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kutlu
authors.forename: Ozhan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Atvar
authors.forename: Omer Faruk
authors.initials: OF
authors.lastname: Vanlioglu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D046149:Embryo Culture Techniques; D010064:Embryo Implantation; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D011247:Pregnancy; D018873:Pregnancy Rate; D015044:Zona Pellucida / Q000648:ultrastructure*
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