Abstract
Does the embryologist performing the embryo transfer (ET) impacts the cycle outcome, in terms of ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR)?
This single-centre retrospective study analysed the results, corrected for main confounders, of 28 embryologists and 32 physicians who performed respectively 24,992 and 24,669 fresh ETs (either at cleavage or blastocyst stage) during a twenty-year period from January 2000 to December 2019, in a university affiliated tertiary care assisted reproductive technologies (ART) centre. Primary outcome was OPR, defined as the number of viable pregnancies that had completed at least 12 weeks of gestation on the total number of ETs performed. In addition, we assessed if the embryologists’ experience, measured in terms of number of ETs performed prior to the day of the procedure, had an impact on their performance. Secondary aim was to assess which variable, between the embryologist and physician, more significantly impacted OPR.
The overall unadjusted OPR was 22.54%. The embryologist performing the ET was found to significantly affect the OPR (p<0.0001), corrected for potential confounders. However, the physician factor gave a slightly greater contribution to the model (LR 21.86, p<0.001 vs LR 17.20, p<0.0001). No significant association was found between the experience of the embryologist and OPR (p=0.067).
Our results show how ‘human factor’ influences the chances of a positive outcome in the final step of a high-tech procedure and underline the importance of implementing an operator quality performance program (both for physicians and embryologists) to ensure the maintenance of benchmark results and eventually re-train underperforming operators.
NCT04827771; 31stMarch 2021.
January 01st, 2000.
