Abstract
Background - Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) may undergo laparoscopic ovarian drilling (LOD). To find out whether endometrial scratch, at time of LOD, could improve live birth rate in subfertile women with PCOS, a randomized controlled trial was conducted.
Results -There was no evidence of a significant difference in cumulative live birth rate between women who had endometrial scratch at time of LOD and those who had LOD only (38.1% and 34.3% respectively, odds ratio 1.18, 95% CI (0.67, 2.07); p = 0.57).
Conclusion - Women undergoing laparoscopic ovarian drilling should not be subjected to endometrial scratch as it does not lead to improvement in live birth rate. The study was prospectively registered on 25 April 2014 in ClinicalTrials.gov with identifier number NCT02140398.
Background
Polycystic ovarian syndrome is the most common cause of anovulatory subfertility [1]. Weight reduction, lifestyle modification, and ovulation induction are the recommended initial management strategies [2, 3]. Laparoscopic ovarian drilling (LOD) has been suggested to induce ovulation in these women, especially those who fail to ovulate through ovulatory medications [4,5,6]. It has been suggested that the procedure is as effective as ovarian stimulation with exogenous gonadotropins [7], yet it does not increase multiple pregnancy rates or ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) rates. Many women may ovulate after LOD, yet they fail to conceive [8]. Those women may need to undergo IVF treatment in their pursuit for a baby.
Endometrial scratching is a procedure where the endometrium is subjected to physical trauma that caused injury to the functional layer of the endometrium mechanically [9,10,11,12]. It has been suggested that endometrial injury could improve IVF outcome in women with recurrent implantation failure after IVF [13]. Nonetheless, endometrial scratch has been also proposed to overcome subfertility in women with unexplained infertility [14]. Randomized controlled trials have also shown improvements of intrauterine insemination (IUI) results in women subjected to controlled endometrial injury prior to insemination [9, 10]. However, there were some other studies that have shown no benefit from the procedure [15, 16].
The aim of our study was to find out whether performing endometrial scratch at time of laparoscopic drilling would improve live birth rate in subfertile women with PCOS.
Patients and methods
Study design and participants - We conducted a parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT), approved by our university ethics committee. We approached all infertile women with anovulatory infertility due to PCOS referred for laparoscopic ovarian drilling in Mansoura University Teaching Hospitals in Mansoura, Egypt. Our hospital is a tertiary care center conducting between 600 and 700 laparoscopic surgeries per year for infertile women. The study was conducted during the period from April 2014 to April 2015 (last patient enrollment). Follow-up was continued for 9 months after laparoscopy. The last pregnancy was in December 2015. Last data collection was in September 2016. An informed written consent was obtained from all women who participated in the study.
Our inclusion criteria were women aged 20 and less than 39 and women with PCOS as diagnosed by Rotterdam criteria, fertile semen analysis according to WHO 2010, and bilateral tubal patency as demonstrated by hysterosalpingogram (HSG) [17, 18]. The exclusion criteria were suspected endometriosis, suspected uterine cavity anomaly or mass, associated male factor infertility, presence of endocrinopathy as thyroid dysfunction, and women subjected to endometrial curettage for any reason in the last 6 months.
Intervention
Women were admitted to our hospital 1 day before laparoscopic drilling. Women were randomized into two groups: group A (the intervention group) and group B (the control group). Randomization was through a computer-generated list of random numbers. Allocation of women to groups was through an opaque sealed envelope that had to be picked by a nurse in the operative theater. The surgeon was not blinded to the procedure while patients and data assessor were blinded to their allocation.
All women underwent a three-puncture laparoscopy procedure where laparoscopic ovarian drilling (LOD) was achieved. Ovarian drilling was performed through monopolar coagulation diathermy. Four punctures were performed. Each penetrates about 4 mm depth, using 40-W power that lasts for 4 s. In the intervention group (group A), endometrial scratching was performed at the end of laparoscopy by endometrial curette. The curette was introduced gently through the cervix up to the uterine fundus then withdrawn for 1 or 2 cm. One act of scratching was performed on the posterior wall of the uterus after the end of drilling. The obtained specimens were sent for histopathology. The control group (group B) had LOD only, and no endometrial scratch was performed.
Women in both groups were seen 3 months after laparoscopy and were asked whether they had a positive pregnancy test, still have oligomenorrhea, or had had regular periods. Women who had regular periods were subjected to folliculometry to confirm the establishment of ovulation while those with oligomenorrhea were subjected to ovulation induction with clomiphene citrate, tamoxifen, or letrozole. Women who did not respond to ovulatory oral medications were stimulated using exogenous gonadotropins using the low-dose step-up protocol with a 37.5 IU starting dose [19]. The primary outcome measure in this trial was live birth rate per woman randomized. Secondary outcome measures were clinical pregnancy rate, time to pregnancy, miscarriage rate, and multiple pregnancy rate. The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov with identifier number NCT02140398.
Definitions - Clinical pregnancy was defined as the presence of intrauterine gestational sac 1 or 2 weeks after positive pregnancy test in blood. Live birth was defined as the delivery of living fetus after 24 weeks gestation.
Statistical analysis - We estimated that the pregnancy rate after laparoscopic ovarian drilling was around 50% [20]. The intervention was suggested to boost pregnancy rate up to 70%. We calculated that we will need to study 93 experimental subjects and 93 control subjects to be able to reject the null hypothesis that the failure rates for experimental and control subjects are equal with a study power (probability) of 80%. The type I error probability associated with this test of this null hypothesis is 0.05 [21]. To compensate for dropouts, we calculated that we needed to randomize 210 women. We used SPSS 15 program. We adopted the intention-to-treat analysis.
We at Mohak infertility center Indore provides you best quality IVF treatment with a high success rate at affordable price. Our goal is to make your parenting dreams come true.
Mohak infertility center, one of the Best Infertility Hospitals in Indore, india provides you International Standard Infertility Treatment along with assisted reproductive technologies like IUI, IVF, ICSI ,etc at affordable IVF treatment cost in indore / Test tube Baby Treatment cost along with the satisfaction of being consulted by the most renowned IVF specialist/ Doctor in Indore ,M.P. Come join best centre for IVF treatment in indore in our voyage towards better healthcare facilities for infertile couples and experience the Best Infertility Treatment in Indore. To Book an Appointment Now Call 78980-47572 / 80852-77666. For more detail visit www.mohakivf.com
Please go through our social media :
like our page to no more about ivf
Please do follow on Instagram
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/mohak_ivf/
To More Post: Fallopian Tube And Its Function
No comments:
Post a Comment