Efficacy of intrauterine infusion therapy before embryo transfer in recurrent implantation failure: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

J Reprod Immunol. 2023 Mar:156:103819. doi: 10.1016/j.jri.2023.103819. Epub 2023 Feb 1.

Abstract

Previous studies of intrauterine infusion therapy in recurrent implantation failure (RIF) patients have shown conflicting results, and there is a lack of head-to-head horizontal comparisons between different drugs. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of four intrauterine infusion drugs, including human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP), in improving pregnancy outcomes in RIF patients through the network meta-analysis. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of preimplantation intrauterine infusion for RIF were searched in the Cochrane Library, Embase, Medline and CINAHL. Meanwhile, relevant data were extracted and Stata 15.0 software was applied to statistical analysis. A total of 21 studies with a sample size of 2917 cases were included in this study. Clinical pregnancy rate network meta-analysis showed that, intrauterine infusion of all four drugs is significantly better than the blank and placebo groups, while only PRP could significantly increase live birth rate compared with the blank and placebo groups. The SUCRA plots of clinical pregnancy and live birth rates showed a higher ranking of PRP and PBMCs. Early abortion intervention analysis found that only G-CSF is significantly better than the blank and placebo groups, and the SUCRA plot of G-CSF showed the highest ranking. All these findings confirmed that all four intrauterine infusion drugs can improve pregnancy outcomes in RIF patients to varying degrees, with PRP being the most effective. Further prospective, large-scale and high-quality RCTs are still necessary to determine the exact subgroups of benefit for the different drugs.

Keywords: Efficacy; Intrauterine infusion; Network meta-analysis; Recurrent implantation failure.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Systematic Review
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Embryo Implantation*
  • Embryo Transfer* / methods
  • Female
  • Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / pharmacology
  • Humans
  • Network Meta-Analysis
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnancy Rate

Substances

  • Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor