EDITORIAL - Results of Assisted Reproductive Technology in 2001 generated from the Middle East IVF registry

Objective: To summarize the results of ART procedures cycles initiated in the Middle East during the year 2001.
Design: Retrospective analysis. Materials and methods: The ‘World Report on ART’ forms, prepared by the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technology (ICMART), were distributed to all IVF centers in the Middle East.
Main outcome measures: The total number of standard IVF, ICSI, FET after standard IVF and ICSI, GIFT and OD cycles, incidence of clinical pregnancy, abortion, delivery, stillbirth and complications rates.
Results: Data was received from thirty centers, with a total of 16,293 reported cycles. ICSI constituted 86.14%, IVF constituted 8.26%, while the frozen-thawed embryo replacement cycles represented only 5.28% of the total number of ART cycles. As for standard IVF, the clinical pregnancy rate per aspiration and per transfer was 29.70 and 30.71%, respectively. For ICSI, the corresponding rates were 29.25 and 31.32%. The distribution of singleton, twin, triplet and high-order deliveries for IVF, ICSI, FET GIFT and OD combined was 64.1, 24.4, and 3.9% respectively. This gives a total multiple delivery rates of 28.3%. As a result of ART activities, 3,911 neonates were reported born. Complications of ART were mainly ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, complicating 1.82% of cycles; the occurrence of bleeding in 0.21% and infection in 0.06% of all aspiration cycles.
Conclusions: This is the second consecutive report of the activities of the Middle East IVF registry for cycles initiated during the year 2001. The clinical pregnancy rates were comparable with the previous report. The multiple pregnancy rate is still high due to the transfer of >3 embryos. OHSS is also high and therefore in the future preventative measures must be stricter. More efforts are needed to complete data on deliveries and perinatal mortalities. Even more efforts are needed to include centers that did not provide their data.