Notice relating to the eggs thawing procedure alternative to the Kitazato protocol

After the temporary withdrawal of the CE-marked media from the Kitazato devices, due to the manufacturer’s problems in the CE seal registration process, as communicated by the manufacturer himself by means of a letter sent to all its customers, Ovobank has began to use alternative protocols for thawing cycles performed in their laboratories to ensure the continuity of their treatments.

In fact, once our laboratory have ended the stocks of Kitazato culture media for vitrifying and thawing (VT801 / VT802) produced before 12/07/2017 and CE marked, OVOBANK has begun to use the thawing kits of other manufacturers with the CE mark, according to the Universal Warming Protocol. The OVOBANK results of the thawing of vitrified MII eggs originally respecting the Kitazato protocol and subsequently thawing with three commercially available medias have reported the results indicated in the following table:

The communication of this preliminary data by Ovobank to all its collaborating centers has the objective of sharing as much information as possible in order to minimize eventual problems in the treatments and to reduce, as far as possible, the learning curve of the Collaborating centers staff regarding the use of these alternative protocols.

From these first results we can conclude that applying the thawing methods currently available in our laboratories results are obtained almost entirely comparable to the thawing performed with the Kitazato protocol.

Periodically, Ovobank will update its data and make it available to collaborating centers.

Our staff is available for any clarification or need for help.

* The quality and survival of thawed eggs has been assessed morphologically.

Enrique Criado Scholz MANAGING DIRECTOR OVOBANK