Pregnancy After ICSI with Ejaculated Immotile Spermatozoa from a Patient with Immotile Cilia Syndrome: a Case Report and Review of the Literature

This study presents a case of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with ejaculated immotile spermatozoa from a patient with immotile cilia syndrome. Semen analysis of the patient suffering from immotile cilia syndrome revealed an extreme oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT: count <1.4 x 10(6)/ml, 0% motility and 3% normal morphology). Electron microscopy of sperm flagella showed the absence of inner and outer dynein arms. During the ICSI cycle, the hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOS) was used for the identification of viable spermatozoa in the pool of immotile spermatozoa for ICSI. A normal fertilization rate was found in eight out of the 12 oocytes. A first fresh double embryo transfer resulted in a late miscarriage at 21 weeks. A second healthy singleton pregnancy occurred after transfer of two frozen-thawed embryos from the same ICSI procedure. Although only one successful ICSI case of the immotile cilia syndrome combined with HOS is described here, HOS might be a simple but valuable tool to obtain normal fertilization and pregnancy for patients suffering from immotile spermatozoa.