Are we ready to inject? Individualized LC-CUSUM training in ICSI.

Objective: The objective of this prospective, single center study was to develop a personalized training scheme for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) through the use of learning curve-cumulative summation (LC-CUSUM), which allows to tailor training to the trainee performance, and to validate it against the performance of experienced embryologists.

Methods: Five trainees microinjected latex microspheres (LM) into vitro matured oocytes. A microinjection was considered successful when the oocyte did not lyse in the 24 h following the injection.

Results: Each trainee became proficient at ICSI after a variable number of injections, ranging from 35 to 80. Trainees that achieved proficiency went on to perform ICSI with human gametes in a clinical setting with proficiency comparable to that of experienced embryologists.

Conclusions: We show that LC-CUSUM based personalized ICSI training is feasible and allows trainees to be as proficient as trained embryologists when treating actual patients.