Get to know the embryoscope

Assuta fertility treatments are stepping up: an innovative and advanced system makes it possible to select the best embryo to be returned to the uterus, using a camera that records the developing stages of the embryo at any given moment.

In the IVF procedure, eggs are extracted from the woman’s body and fertilized under laboratory conditions with the man’s sperm. Of all the fertilized eggs, the embryos that develop in the best way and have the potential to develop into a normal pregnancy are selected.

The innovative incubator, recently introduced for use in Assuta’s fertility laboratories, continuously captures the development of the “pre-embryo” using an advanced HD camera, and transfers the images to a computer.

These photographs make it possible to provide an ongoing dynamic assessment in real time, without interruption and manipulation on the eggs on a daily basis and without the need to remove them from the incubator in order to examine their development. Photographing the developing embryo inside the incubator also makes it possible to maintain continuous control of gases and temperature and reduces the risk of harm to the developing embryos.

“It is a device that combines three devices – an incubator, a microscope and a camera,” explains Pasha Itzikson, embryologist and director of the fertility laboratory at Assuta Rishon. “The embryoscope photographs the embryos from several angles, so that a three-dimensional image is obtained”. “Because the camera captures each fetus every twenty minutes, a kind of film is created that documents all stages of pre-fetal development, so the embryologist receives many important data about each embryo and can monitor the development even when he/she is not in the laboratory.”

“The embryoscope opens a new era in our ability to understand and follow the development of the human fetus,” concludes Dr. Shai Elitzur, director of the IVF unit at Assuta Ramat Hachayal, “and significantly improves our ability to return the embryos to the uterus with the best implantation ability.”