Neonatal outcome of early rescue ICSI and ICSI with ejaculated sperm.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of early rescue ICSI on neonatal outcome. Methods: This retrospective study compared the neonatal outcome of early rescue ICSI and ICSI with ejaculated sperm, including 233 children who were conceived after early rescue ICSI and a control group of 906 children who were conceived after ICSI with ejaculated sperm, and all of the children had a gestational age of 20 weeks or more. The numbers of live and stillbirths, perinatal deaths, prematurity, birthweights and birth defects of the children were compared. Results: Children in the early rescue ICSI group showed no increased risk of stillbirths, perinatal death or birth defects. Those children also did not differ from those of the ICSI with ejaculated sperm group in gender rate, birthweight, gestational age or prematurity. Conclusions: Early rescue ICSI did not increase the adverse effect on the neonatal outcome when compared to that of ICSI with ejaculated sperm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]