the outcomes of intracytoplasmic sperm injection and laser assisted hatching in women undergoing in vitro fertilization are affected by the cause of infertility

background: we sought to determine the association between factors that affected clinical pregnancy and live birth rates in patients who underwent in vitro fertilization (ivf) and received intracytoplasmic sperm injection (icsi) and/or laser assisted hatching (lah), or neither. materials and methods: in this retrospective cohort study, the records of women who underwent ivf with or without icsi and/or lah at the far eastern memorial hospital, taipei, taiwan between january 2007 and december 2010 were reviewed. we divided patients into four groups: 1. those that did not receive icsi or lah, 2. those that received icsi only, 3. those that received lah only and 4. those that received both icsi and lah. univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine factors associated with clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate in each group. results: a total of 375 women were included in the analysis. oocyte number (or=1.07) affected the live birth rate in patients that did not receive either icsi or lah. maternal age (or=0.89) and embryo transfer (et) number (or=1.59) affected the rate in those that received icsi only. female infertility factors other than tubal affected the rate (or=5.92) in patients that received both icsi and lah. no factors were found to affect the live birth rate in patients that received lah only. conclusion: oocyte number, maternal age and et number and female infertility factors other than tubal affected the live birth rate in patients that did not receive icsi or lah, those that received icsi only, and those that received both icsi and lah, respectively. no factors affected the live birth rate in patients that received lah only. these data might assist in advising patients on the appropriateness of icsi and lah after failed ivf.