Does transabdominal ultrasound-guided embryo transfer improve pregnancy rates in ART cycles?

Background: Recent reports have suggested that ultrasound-guided embryo transfer (UG-ET) might improve pregnancy rates. Objective: To determine whether transabdominal UG-ET is a useful tool for increasing pregnancy and implantation rates in patients undergoing IVF or ICSI. Materials and Methods: A prospective randomized clinical trial was conducted in 180 patients in order to compare embryo transfer under abdominal ultrasound-guidance (n=90) with embryo transfer by clinical touch method (n=90). Results: The Clinical pregnancy rate was 21.1 % in the ultrasound-guided group and 15.5 % in the clinical touch group (p =0.3). The implantation rate in the ultrasound guided group was 11.1% while this was 7.2% in the clinical touch group (p =0.12). The percentage of difficult transfer was not significantly different in both groups, this was 8.9% in the ultrasound-guided group and 13.3% in the clinical touch group (p =0.47). Conclusions: Although the clinical pregnancy and implantation rate are higher in UGET group than the clinical touch group, but this difference was not statistically significant.