Oocyte vitrification: A local validation of the method

Is there a really need to validate oocyte vitrification technique in an ART laboratory before establishing it in daily practice? Validation of micromanipulationbased technique, in this case oocyte vitrification, is essential prior to enlarging its use to routine practice. Oocyte vitrification is a new worldwide used technique and legal recently in France. This micromanipulation needs to be performed by a skilled and experienced embryologist and requires an internal assessment in each ART unit before any wide use. We designed a prospective study, from September 2011 to July 2012, using sibling oocytes from women who recovered more than 12 Metaphase II oocytes. A part of freshly recovered oocytes underwent immediate ICSI while the remaining oocytes were vitrified. 87 couples undergoing ICSI were selected based on number of mature oocytes available on the recovery day after denudation. A part of fresh MII oocytes were microinjected and the others were vitrified using an open system (Cryotop). The major criterion of interest was the number of embryo transferred/ number of Metaphase II ratio for after ICSI on fresh oocytes (42/211) versus vitrified/warmed oocytes (51/204) (p > 0.05). Secondary studied criteria were survival rate (80.5% ± 26.3%), fertilization rate (68.9 ± 33.5) and finally, cumulative pregnancy rate obtained in this study is 40.2%. One of the benefits of such practice is the limitation of embryo freezing. However, the study design delays oocytes warming cycles, due to pregnancies triggered by the transfer of fresh derived oocyte embryos and to the priority to transfer all the frozen embryos before starting oocytes warming. Moreover, no data is available about children’ health. Oocyte vitrification represents not only a change in our daily practice to improve cumulative pregnancy rate but also a promising tool to develop egg banking and donation. Clinical Trials Registration number: 209 R02.