Robot-assisted laparoscopy technique applied successfully in Vietnam

Nguyen Chi Thanh, the son of Nguyen Van Hanh, 45, and Dang Thi Nhan, 44, in Hai Phong City, was born in December 2014. He was the first child born via IVF at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi.

Bach Mai was the 20th medical center in Vietnam that established an assisted reproduction unit. A report shows that more than 20 IVF cases were successful in the first 10 months of operation.

They included a woman who was 45 years old and had six failed IVF procedure, and a foreign woman who had unsuccessful IVF procedures in Europe and Asia. 

According to the Ministry of Health, the infertility rate in Vietnam is 7.7 percent, while 35-50 percent of assisted reproduction cases are successful.

While developed countries began developing IVF 40 years ago, Vietnam has been carrying out the procedures for 17 years. 

The first three IVF cases resulted in three babies born on April 30, 1998. Twenty IVF operation centers in Vietnam conduct IVF for 15,000 couples a year.

However, though Vietnam has fewer years of experience than other countries, the success rate in IVF operations in the country is very high, while the operation costs are very low.

An IVF case costs about VND60 million, or $3,000, while the success rate is 40 percent.

Ho Manh Tuong Secretary General, of the Association of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Association, said the rate was 35 percent only in the US and Europe, while it was 20 percent in Germany.

Meanwhile, the cost of every IVF case in developed countries is much higher than in Vietnam, at $12,000-15,000.  In other Asian countries, couples have to pay $8,000-12,000.

In March 2015, the Ministry of Health announced that twin brothers born prematurely at the 24th week of pregnancy through IVF (one weighed 500 grams and the other 600 grams), were successfully fed and saved. 

The children left the Central Maternity Hospital after doctors confirmed that their health was in good condition.

The twin brothers were the children of Ho Thi Hai Yen, who was born in 1986. This was for the first time this had happened in Vietnam.

Vietnam has also successfully conducted IVF with a deceased fathers’ sperm that had been preserved for three years.

The wife, Hoang Thi Kim D, delivered two healthy sons in late 2013 at the Central Maternity Hospital in Hanoi.

VnMedia