Abstract
In the last 40 years since the first successful human birth, ART has been continuously improved. Significant advances have been made in oocyte fertilization and embryo culture, resulting in an increase of the success rate and safety of ART treatments. Oocyte recovery aims to maximize the number of oocytes recruited from the ovarian follicles, while minimizing the patient surgical risks. In the early history of IVF experimentation, abdominal laparotomy was performed to collect oocytes during tubal ligation procedures. Techniques described for follicle aspiration involved puncturing follicles with a diameter higher than 5 mm with a 20-gauge needle. The aspiration needle was connected to the tube and emptied into a test tube. Aspiration was achieved by covering the free opening in the three-way connector to create suction to 200 mmHg. Each follicle was finally transferred into an individual tube [1]. Although the laparotomic approach could be an option to obtain oocytes in certain cases, it may cause several surgical risks, such as bleeding, infection, pain, potential injury to the surrounding pelvic and abdominal organs, and longer recovery time, which encouraged the pursuit of alternative surgical options. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a great interest in developing less invasive gynecologic techniques.
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Baldini, D., Lavopa, C., Matteo, M., Malvasi, A. (2020). Oocyte Retrieval. In: Malvasi, A., Baldini, D. (eds) Pick Up and Oocyte Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28741-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28741-2_10
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