IMSI- Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection

IMSI – Intracytoplasmic Morphologically-selected Sperm Injection is a male infertility treatment developed by Benjamin Baartov of Bar Ilan University, Israel in 2004. The technique involves selecting morphologically ,the best quality sperms from husband’s semen sample, and injecting them directly into the eggs, retrieved from the female partner, thereby increasing the probability of these sperm cells to fertilize the eggs. In the ICSI technique, the sperm is magnified 200 times whereas in the IMSI technique the sperm is magnified 7000 times. At such magnification the sperm morphological defects namely the subtle intra-nuclear sperm defects and the chromatin compaction defects get easily detected while conventional ICSI fails to identify the same. This leads to higher fertilization rates, higher implantation rates, and ultimately higher ‘take home baby’ rates. It also reduces early abortion rates. IMSI technique is immensely beneficial for patients with more than two ICSI failures, patients where there is severe male factor abnormality e.g. severe oligoasthenospermia / normal sperm count but higher percentage of abnormal sperms- Teratozoospermia, elderly male partners, in cases of recurrent first trimester abortions(here the conventional ICSI does succeed but results in early abortions), and in patients with prolonged Unexplained Infertility.