IVF success rates: How Air quality in the IVF Lab

One of the most significant factors which bring fruition to IVF is the Air Quality inside the IVF lab. For this reason, at Femiint Health, after thorough research, a state-of-the-art IVF laboratory has been built with one of the best Modular Clean Rooms of globally recommended standards. An embryo’s development is influenced by the quality of air in the lab. Embryos breathe (absorb) air just like we do. They do not yet have a liver, spleen, and kidneys to filter out pollutants in the air. In an IVF lab, the embryos in the petri dish have no protection and are in direct contact with the air that we breathe. Air has compounds such as chemical air contaminants (CACs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which could easily end up in the petri dish or settle on surfaces or dissolve in aqueous solutions of the embryo culture medium and even more so in the lipophilic oil overlays via body perfumes, cleaning solutions, glues, paint fumes, off-gassing from certain flooring, exhaust in the parking lot, or general air pollution. Just a short exposure to any of these compounds can irreversibly damage or kill embryos. At Femiint Health, the IVF laboratory is equipped with a specialized 5-stage air filtration system with clear separation of clean and dirty flow channels, automated hermetically sealed doors with pass boxes (for material traffic between the operation theatre and IVF lab) and a separate air handling unit for each room in the IVF lab. Clean Room Technology A clean room is a contained space with provisions to maintain the rate of filtration of particles at a higher level than the rate of contamination per minute. They are classified based on the number and sizes of particles permitted per volume of air. For an IVF lab, Class-10000 variety is recommended. Clean room environment is achieved by highly filtered air being flushed through High Efficiency Particle Air (HEPA) filters under positive pressure. The filters are housed within ducts that use chemical/absorbent filtration and/or UV light irradiation, photocatalytic conversion or a combination of some or all these methods. At Femiint Health, validation of air quality is done periodically. Our embryologist calculates the key performance indicators such as in vitro fertilization rate, cleavage rates, embryo quality and pregnancy rates on a quarterly basis to ensure that the laboratory is running as expected. It is mandatory that all furniture, cleaning methods, and clothing are clean room approved. The laboratory should have smooth, non-porous walls, impervious unbroken surfaces with corners and ledges that are easy to clean, no sliding doors, sinks or drains. Cladding with non-porous materials such as panels made of aluminium tri-hydrate provide an inert (low VOC), hypoallergenic, and easy to clean wall. Lighting should be within sealed lighting units to reduce airborne particles. Ducts generally tend to get clogged with dust and debris and also have high humidity and a high propensity for mould (Fungi). To prevent this, the ducts and pipes can be insulated internally by hiding them between wall panels or externally by covering them within an alcove. At Femiint, we have given paramount importance to air ducts & pipes by coating them internally with antifungal & antibacterial materials to prevent mould. A non-compromising attitude towards maintaining air quality at Femiint Health is a reason why we are ranked as One of the Top fertility clinic in Bangalore with a high success rate for IVF procedure.