Clinical application of oocyte vitrification in failed testicular sperm extraction cycles: Report of 8 cases

SONG Wen-yan; SUN Ying-pu; JIN Hai-xia; XIN Zhi-min; SU Ying-chun; GUO Yi-hong; CHEN Zi-jiang

Abstract：Objective:To evaluate the clinical application value of oocyte vitrification in failed testicular sperm extraction cycles in non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) patients.Methods:We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 8 women undergoing oocyte frozen-thawing cycles by vitrification because of failed testicular sperm extraction from their NOA husbands and no banked donor sperm on the day of oocyte retrieval.The oocytes were cryopreserved by vitrification with cryotop and thawed 2 months later.The surviving metaphase Ⅱ (MⅡ) oocytes were injected with the banked donor sperm of the same blood type as the husbands'by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) for fertilization.The rates of oocyte survival,fertilization,cleavage,good embryos and pregnancy were evaluated.Results:Sixty oocytes were vitrified and 47 (78.3%) survived after thawing,of which 41 MⅡ oocytes underwent ICSI and 33 ( 80.5% ) of them were fertilized.The rates of cleavage and good embryos were 81.8% (27/33) and 59.3% (16/27) respectively.Fifteen of the embryos were transferred to the 8 patients,with 1.9±0.8 per cycle,of which 5 (33.3%) were confirmed by ultrasound to have been implanted and 5 resulted in clinical pregnancy (62.5%),all singleton without miscarriage.Three normal boys and 1 normal girl were already born,with the pregnancy time of (39 +4±0.4) wk and newborn body weight of (3787.5±513.7) g,respectively.Conclusion :Vitrification of oocytes in failed testicular sperm extraction cycles is a promising technique for preserving female fertility,which,with ICSI of banked donor sperm,may result in satisfactory clinical outcomes.