Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 August 2009
Complications of OHSS are well documented in the literature (Rizk, 1992, 1993a; Bergh and Lundkvist, 1992; Roest et al., 1996). Bergh and Lundkvist (1992) surveyed the 12 IVF clinics in the Nordic countries and documented OHSS requiring hospital care in 0.7% of 10 125 treatment cycles. Similarly, Roest et al. (1996) performed a retrospective analysis of 2,495 cycles at the single clinic in The Netherlands. Hospital admission was required in 0.7% of cycles due to severe OHSS. While vascular complications are the most dreaded, other complications, such as pulmonary, gastrointestinal and renal complications have very serious sequelae in severe cases (Rizk and Nawar, 2004; Rizk and Aboulghar, 2005).
FATAL CASES OF OVARIAN HYPERSTIMULATION SYNDROME
Since the introduction of gonadotrophins for ovulation induction, there have been a number of deaths directly and indirectly related to OHSS (Schenker and Weinstein, 1978). The incidence of mortality following OHSS has been estimated at 1 in 500 000 (Brinsden et al., 1995). In three large reports of IVF from the Nordic countries, The Netherlands and Australia, there have been no reports of death in 10 125, 2495 and 59 681 IVF treatment cycles, respectively (Bergh and Lundkvist, 1992; Roest et al., 1996; Venn et al., 2001). It is also reassuring that the Australian registry showed that the mortality in a cohort of IVF patients is significantly lower then that in the general female population of the same age (age standardized mortality ratio of 0.58 and 95%, confidence interval 0.48–0.65, Venn et al., 2001).
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