PRP in recurrent implantation failure, hope or hype? A Prospective randomized controlled study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Al-Azhar university

2 IVF Unit, Al-Baraka Fertility Hospital, Bahrain

3 International Islamic Center For Population Studies and Researches, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt,

Abstract

Introduction: The endometrial function and endometrial receptivity have been accepted to be major limiting factors in the establishment of pregnancy. In spite of improved almost all aspects of IVF: ovarian stimulation, embryo culture and transfer, the pregnancy rates still not satisfactory. The bottleneck is the process of implantation. Recurrent implantation failure (RIF) is one of the nightmares in reproductive medicine and despite several strategies that have been described for management; there is no universal agreement yet. Recently, intrauterine infusion of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is described to promote endometrial growth and receptivity, PRP has been investigated as a therapeutic approach for several medical disorders in dermatology and rheumatology, but its use in IVF is still limited.
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of intrauterine perfusion of autologous platelet-rich plasma in improvement of pregnancy rate in RIF patients.
Design: Prospective randomized controlled study.
Patients and Methods: After ethical committee approval was obtained, 150 infertile women with history of RIF gave their consent to be included in this study, with age below 40 yrs, body mass index (BMI) below 30 kg/m2. They were divided into 2 comparable groups ; all participants underwent antagonist protocol. In the study group, intrauterine infusion of (PRP) was performed 48 hrs before blastocyst transfer, pregnancy tests were done 12 days after ET.
Results: Out of 75 participants in each group, 32 got pregnant (43%) in the study group, compared to 11 pregnant participants (15%) in control group.
Conclusion: According to our study, PRP significantly improved the pregnancy rate and may be a new hope in RIF patients.

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