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Last updated: 02/17/2009
When a blood clot forms in a blood vessel, it may cut off or severely reduce blood flow to parts of the body that are served by that blood vessel. This event can cause serious damage to those parts of the body. If the clot forms in an artery that supplies...
blood to the heart, for example, it can cause a heart attack. A clot that cuts off blood to the brain can cause a stroke. Thrombolytic therapy is used to dissolve blood clots that could cause serious, and possibly life-threatening, damage if they are not removed. Research suggests that when used to treat stroke, thrombolytic therapy can prevent or reverse paralysis and other problems that otherwise might result.
In heart attacks, thrombolytic therapy is an alternative to stenting, a procedure in which a spring-like device is inserted into a blocked blood vessel. In general, stenting is the preferred treatment, since it both removes the clot and opens the blood vessel, which may have internal cholesterol deposits. Thrombolytic therapy only removes the clot, but it can be administered in hospitals with fewer resources than are required for insertion of a stent.
Thrombolytic therapy is also used to dissolve blood clots that form in catheters or tubes put into people's bodies for medical treatments, such as dialysis or chemotherapy.
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Thrombolytic therapy is a treatment used to break up dangerous clots inside your blood vessels. To perform this treatment, your physician injects clot-dissolving medications into a blood vessel. In some cases, the medications flow through your bloodstream to the clot. In other cases, your physician guides a long, thin tube, called a catheter, through your blood vessels to the area of the clot. Depending on the circumstances, the tip of the catheter may carry special attachments that break up clots. The catheter then delivers medications or mechanically breaks up the clot.
Thrombolytic therapy commonly is used to treat an ischemic stroke, which is another name for a clot in a blood vessel in your brain. It can also be used to treat clots in:
A lung artery, called a pulmonary embolism;
The deep veins of your leg, called deep vein thrombosis (DVT);
Your heart, which may cause a heart attack;
An artery elsewhere in your body, such as in an arm or leg artery; or
A bypass graft or dialysis catheter that has become blocked.
From http://www.vascularweb.org/patients/NorthPoint/Thrombolytic_Therapy.html
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