Septum resection did not improve reproductive outcomes in a group of Han Chinese women with septate uterus undergoing in vitro fertilization/ intracytoplasmic sperm injection embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET)

Abstract

Background The septate uterus is a common anomaly affecting about 5% of infertile patients. Septum resection is recommended to improve pregnancy outcomes. However, several recent studies challenged the necessity of surgical removal of septum based on lack of benefit, increased risk to the patients, and avoidable economic burden to the health care system.Methods This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the impact of septum resection on reproductive outcomes in a group of infertile patients with septate uterus. All patients underwent in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer or intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET). Reproductive outcomes were compared between patients with septum resection and patients without septum resection.Results A total of 91 patients, with half of them received septum resection, were included in this analysis. For the 45 patients with septum resection, 25 pregnancy (56%) were achieved with 20 live births (44%), 7 were preterm delivery (35%). Similarly, out of the 46 patients without septum resection, 24 pregnancy (52%) were achieved with 19 live births (41%), 6 were preterm delivery (32%).Conclusions This study demonstrated that Han Chinese women with septate uterus did not benefit significantly from septum resection, in the context of undertaking IVF/ICSI-ET assisted pregnancy. However, although it did not reach statistical significance, a trend was noticed that primary infertile women might derive more benefit from septum resection compared to women with a history of recurrent abortion.