Local anesthesia versus intravenous infusion of remifentanil for assisted reproductive technologies. A retrospective study.

ABSTRACT

AIM: The aim of the work was to compare two different techniques, local anaesthesia versus continuous intravenous administration of remifentanil for oocyte retrieval. The impact on the medical assisted procreation (PMA) procedures in terms of number and quality of oocytes collected was evaluated. METHODS: The experimental design was a retrospective study which compared two different techniques, local anaesthesia versus continuous intravenous administration of remifentanil. 548 women with the same infertility duration and ovarian reserve were classified in two groups of 274 women each, that underwent to oocytes retrieval with intravenous infusion of remifentanil (first group) or with local anesthesia (second group). RESULTS: The analysis showed that the intravenous infusion of remifentanil doesn't interfere in the quality of oocytes retrieved and embryo score. CONCLUSION: The administration of intravenous remifentanil makes easier the pick-up of oocytes because women had no pain during the procedure. In this way, it was possible to recover more oocytes and to verify that the drug doesn't interfere with the exitus of the techniques. For these reasons we decided to continue in using intravenous infusion of remifentanil for the retrieval of oocytes.