Worldwide, approximately 500,000 in vitro fertilization cycles are performed every year. Although the best possible result is a healthy child, the technology carries a number of varying risks and complications leading to a trade-off between the efficacy of these treatments and their quality and safety. Drawing on contributions from international ex

Worldwide, approximately 500,000 in vitro fertilization cycles are performed every year. Although the best possible result is a healthy child, the technology carries a number of varying risks and complications leading to a trade-off between the efficacy of these treatments and their quality and safety. Drawing on contributions from international experts with academic and clinical backgrounds, Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Quality and Safety presents an analysis of the medical risks and complications involved in reproductive medicine. Putting the intricacies of reproductive health in the spotlight, the book describes side-effects, risks, and complications related to ART treatments. It discusses ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, demonstrates the impact of judicious elective single embryo transfer, and focuses heavily on multiple pregnancy as the major risk factor of ART. The editors highlight the relatively less likely, but important risks of oncogenic complications, bleeding at the time of ovum retrieval, and the even smaller but still existing risk for maternal mortality. They include discussions of non-medical factors that can have a major impact on people's lives such as psychological, sexual, financial, moral, ethical, and philosophical dilemmas. In today's litigious climate, modern management of any clinic is all about minimizing risks and complications. Thoroughly addressing quality and safety issues in ART, this book provides succinct, up-to-date information on quality care in reproductive medicine.

In the last decades, major advances have been made in assisted reproductive technologies (ART) and the public demand for these procedures has increased globally. All ART clinics, from those just starting out to the well established, must employ the latest equipment and implement the best practices, while ensuring that their resources are effectively engaged to optimize patient outcomes. This is a tenet of the fiduciary role of physicians and it is increasingly recognized as a quantifiable goal regulated by formal certifications and accreditations. Quality management protocols such as those proposed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) are being rapidly adopted as standards of measure. Quality Management in ART Clinics: A Practical Guide provides easily adoptable ways to implement and improve formalized quality management systems. Essential to any clinic to achieve best practices and maintenance of formal regulatory certifications, this book brings together the know-how of experienced opinion leaders operating in key areas worldwide. The book offers an overview of primary regulations in the ART field, with attention to quality management demands, and links specific requirements to practical steps for implementation. Filled with process and procedure examples, flow diagrams and administrative form templates, this book is the first of its kind, gathering the necessary elements for optimizing practice, management, and quality assurance.

A much-needed overview of the available information now accumulating to indicate that assisted reproductive technologies are generally safe for both babies and mothers. However, the literature abounds with reports of a higher risk of obstetric and perinatal complications; regarding the long term outcomes for both women and children, the data are still scarce. The chapters summarized in this book review the current knowledge on long term safety of assisted reproduction and indicate the need for continued research to cover the lack of data in some specific patient groups and for recently developed treatments that only have a short period of follow-up.

For over forty years, assisted reproductive technology (ART) has helped millions of patients around the world to overcome infertility. Careful monitoring of ART treatments and their outcomes is vital to maintain the remarkable pace of change in science and technology, whilst minimizing potential risks to infertility patients, and their children. Written by forty-five authors from twenty countries around the world, this book represents a global effort to document the history of assisted reproductive technology surveillance, and its dynamic challenges across the world. Comprehensive in its approach, the text details best practices in collecting and using ART surveillance data to monitor treatment effectiveness and safety, improve quality of care, develop health policy, and provide accurate information to infertility patients, worldwide.

This concise and practical book is the first of its kind to examine the use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in relation to blood-borne infectious diseases: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV). The book opens with a discussion of the impact of these viruses on male and female fertility, followed by specific chapters of each of them, including ART with HIV and HCV serodiscordant couples (where either the male or female is positive) and the detection and impact of HBV and HCV in human gametes and embryos. An important character on laboratory safety when performing ART with blood-borne viruses follows, and the book concludes with a discussion of ART in austere and resource-poor settings, where these infections are often dominant due to lack of treatment and access to vaccines. Written and edited by an international array of experts in reproductive medicine, Assisted Reproductive Technologies and Infectious Diseases explores questions, techniques, and related issues with the aim of effectively helping clinicians working with serodiscordant couples wishing to have children.

Offers a comprehensive guide to assisted reproductive technology surveillance, describing its history, global variations, and best practices.