SynthesisReproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E2021
Should rescue ICSI be re-evaluated considering the deferred transfer of cryopreserved embryos in in-vitro fertilization cycles? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- IVF versus ICSI in patients without severe male factor infertility: a randomized clinical trial.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- Patient-level cost analysis of subfertility pathways in the Dutch healthcare system.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2025Article
- Indications affect neonatal outcomes following early rescue ICSI: a retrospective study.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2024Article
- Comparing the pregnancy outcomes of Re‑ICSI and ICSI embryos in fresh ET and FET cycles.Biomedical reports · 2023Article
- Advances in the study of genetic factors and clinical interventions for fertilization failure.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2023Review
- Clinical outcome of different embryo transfer strategies after late rescue ICSI procedure: a 10-year total fertilisation failure cohort study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- Cycle Characteristics and Pregnancy Outcomes of Early Rescue Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Cycles in Normal and Hyper-Ovarian Response Women: A Six-Year Retrospective Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Opportunities and Limits of Conventional IVF versus ICSI: It Is Time to Come off the Fence.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- Fertilization and neonatal outcomes after early rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection: a retrospective analysis of 16,769 patients.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTotal fertilization failure represents a particularly frustrating condition for couples undergoing in vitro fertilization. With the aim of reducing the occurrence of total fertilization failure, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has become the first choice over conventional in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures although evidence of improved results is still debated and its use in couples without male factor infertility is not recommended. Among the strategies potentially useful to promote the use of conventional IVF, we herein call attention to the late rescue ICSI, which consists in performing ICSI after 18-24 h from conventional insemination on oocytes that show no signs of fertilization. This treatment has however been reported to be associated with a low success rate until recent observations that embryos derived from late rescue ICSI may be transferred after cryopreservation in a frozen-thawed cycle with improved results. The aim of the present study was to assess whether frozen embryos deriving from rescue ICSI performed about 24 h after conventional IVF may represent a valuable option for couples experiencing fertilization failure.
methodsA systematic review on the efficacy of late rescue ICSI was performed consulting PUBMED and EMBASE.
resultsIncluding twenty-two original studies, we showed that clinical pregnancy rate per embryo transfer and implantation rate obtainable with fresh embryo transfers after rescue ICSI are not satisfactory being equal to 10 and 5%, respectively. The transfer of cryopreserved rescue ICSI embryos seems to offer a substantial improvement of success rates, with pregnancy rate per embryo transfer and implantation rate equal to 36 and 18%, respectively. Coupling rescue ICSI with frozen embryo transfer may ameliorate the clinical pregnancy rate for embryo transfer with an Odds Ratio = 4.7 (95% CI:2.6-8.6).
conclusionResults of the present review support the idea that r-ICSI coupled with frozen embryo transfer may overcome most of the technical and biological issues associated with fresh transfer after late r-ICSI, thus possibly representing an efficient procedure for couples experiencing fertilization failure following conventional IVF cycles.
trial registrationProspero registration ID: CRD42021239026 .
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.