Vaginal disinfection with povidone iodine immediately before oocyte retrieval is effective in preventing pelvic abscess formation without compromising the outcome of IVF-ET.

PURPOSE: In this study, the method of employing preretrieval vaginal douching with aqueous povidone iodine is examined to see if it can decrease the incidence of pelvic abscess without compromising the clinical outcome of IVF-ET. METHODS: Patients with ovarian endometrioma and received IVF-ET treatment were retrospectively classified into two groups according to the difference of vaginal douching solution immediately before oocyte retrieval. RESULTS: There was no difference in the fertilization rate (81.2% versus 79.8%, P > 0.05), implantation rate (19.2% versus 23.3%, P > 0.05), clinical pregnancy rate (39.3% versus 46.2%, P > 0.05) between the two groups. There was no infection in patients of group two but two cases in group one developed pelvic abscess and needed surgical intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Vaginal douching with aqueous povidone iodine followed by normal saline irrigation immediately before oocyte retrieval is effective in preventing the pelvic infection without compromising the outcome of IVF treatment.

Comparing the clinical outcomes of intrauterine insemination by two different density gradient preparation methods.

BACKGROUND: Sperm preparation has play an integral part in the success of in-vitro fertilization. The aim of this study was to compare 2 different density gradient preparations for sperm separation in respect to sperm recovery, motility, motion parameters and clinical outcome after intrauterine insemination. METHODS: One-hundred and 21 women who received intrauterine insemination due to ovulation dysfunction were randomly allocated into 2 groups, using either the Percoll (Amersham, Pharmacia Biotech AB, Sweden) or the PureSperm (Nidacon, Göteborg, Sweden) density gradient method for sperm preparation. The characteristics of sperm before and after separation and the clinical outcome of intrauterine insemination were compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS: PureSperm and Percoll demonstrated comparable ability to recover the sperms with progressive motility. There was no difference in motion parameters and the number of sperm recovered with progressive motility between the Percoll and the PureSperm density gradient preparations. The clinical pregnancy rate was also comparable between the 2 groups, 12.5% (7/56) in the PureSperm group compared to 13.8% (9/65) in the Percoll group, (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Despite using different density composition and volume, PureSperm demonstrated clinical effect comparable to that of Percoll in preparing sperm for intrauterine insemination.