Assessing the Medical Risks of Human Oocyte Donation for Stem Cell Research Workshop Report (2007) / Chapter Skim
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3 Potential Risks Associated with Egg Retrieval
3 Potential Risks Associated with Egg Retrieval
Pages 31-40
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From page 31... ...
This procedure is considered to be minor surgery. Nonetheless, it is still a surgical procedure done under anesthesia, and both the surgery and the anesthesia carry potential risks.
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From page 32... ...
All rights reserved. POTENTIAL SURGICAL RISKS Most of the surgical complications surrounding egg retrieval stem from two basic facts about the surgery: a needle must be pushed through the vagina and into the ovary, and a number of other organs and sensitive tissues lie nearby.
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From page 33... ...
A prospective study published in 2006 showed a clearly higher rate of complications, but, again, the rate of serious complications was very low. In a study population of more than 1,000 patients, 2.8 percent experienced some vaginal bleeding, but none required suturing.
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From page 34... ...
POTENTIAL RISKS OF ANESTHESIA Besides the potential risks associated with the surgical retrieval, women undergoing oocyte retrieval also face certain potential risks from the anesthesia used to handle their pain during the surgery. Lawrence Tsen, associate professor in anesthesia at the Harvard Medical School, spoke at the workshop about these potential risks.
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From page 35... ...
Because of where these pain signals enter the spine, a paracervical block -- a type of anesthesia sometimes used during childbirth that involves injecting a local anesthetic on either side of the cervix -- would not block all of the pain. Thus an anesthesiologist would need to use something in addition to the paracervical block or else would have to use a spinal anesthetic or some intravenous form of anesthesia or sedation.
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From page 36... ...
Tsen said. Two of the biggest advances were the development in the 1980s of pulse oximetry and capnography, which allow health care providers to monitor a patient's blood oxygen level and, indirectly, the level of carbon dioxide in the blood as well.
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From page 37... ...
Tsen said, is that the potential risks of anesthesia for oocyte retrieval are very low -- rare mortality, rare major morbidity, and rare minor morbidity. The one potential risk factor that applies to egg donors and that might put them at more risk during anesthesia is if they are obese, but even then the potential risks remain very small.
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From page 38... ...
And whatever risk there may be for women undergoing IVF, the risk would be expected to be somewhat lower in healthy women donating eggs for research. SUMMARY: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE RISKS OF EGG RETRIEVAL Once hormone treatment has led the ovaries to create a large number of antral follicles ready to ovulate, a surgeon must retrieve the eggs from the follicles by putting a needle through the wall of the vagina into the ovary and using the needle to aspirate the individual follicles.
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From page 39... ...
Various factors increase the risk of complications from retrieval surgery, including previous surgeries, a history of pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, and pelvic adhesions. All these factors are more likely to be found in women undergoing in vitro fertilization than in the general population, which implies that egg donors should have much lower surgical risks than women undergoing IVF.
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