LASER ASSISTED HATCHING

Significant improvement in pregnancy rate is achieved through laser assisted hatching. It benefits patients with failed IVF cycles, patients over the age of 38, and who have previous poor implantation results.

 

Assisted zona hatching in the ART laboratory consists of creating a hole in the zona pellucida (embryo covering) to facilitate the hatching process. Indications/criteria for AZH include those patients with the following characteristics:

• poor prognosis embryos as deemed by the IVF laboratory;

• advanced age (usually >38 years) in which the zona may be thicker or harder;

• borderline or elevated FSH levels;

• repeated failure of embryo implantation in IVF; 

• frozen embryos (since the zona may be hardened as a result of freezing/thawing procedures).