Abstract
Purpose: Our purpose was to characterize and describe anesthesia practice in programs performing IVF in the United States.
Methods: We used a telephone survey requiring respondents to be either the program director, a physician, or a nurse familiar with the practice. Two hundred seven (78%) Society of Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) registered programs agreed to participate. Programs were divided by geographic region and type of practice (academic versus private).
Results: Ninety-one private (68%) and 41 academic (56%) programs used personnel provided by the Department of Anesthesiology. Conscious sedation was performed most commonly (95%). The remaining 5% used primarily either general, regional, or local anesthesia. Typical recovery times were 90 to 120 min. Average costs of anesthetic administration were $300–$400 and were similar among groups except for the Eastern academic programs, with a higher mean cost of $543. Programs using personnel from anesthesiology reported higher costs compared to programs utilizing their own staff ($391±15 vs $157±11; P<0.05). Complications were infrequent (<10%); no hospitalizations or serious life-threatening incidents were reported.
Conclusions: A large number of programs safely used their own trained personnel to deliver anesthesia, and realized a significant reduction in cost.
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Ditkoff, E.C., Plumb, J., Selick, A. et al. Anesthesia practices in the united states common to in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers. J Assist Reprod Genet 14, 145–147 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02766130
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02766130