Thrombolysis
breakdown (lysis) of blood clots formed in blood vessels, using medication
Thrombolysis, also called fibrinolytic therapy, is the breakdown (lysis) of blood clots formed in blood vessels, using medication. It is used in ST elevation myocardial infarction, stroke, and in cases of severe venous thromboembolism (massive pulmonary embolism or extensive deep vein thrombosis).
Thrombolytic medications pose a risk of serious bleeding, and in some situations thrombolysis may therefore be unsuitable. Thrombolysis can also play an important part in reperfusion therapy in blocked arteries.
Medical uses
Diseases where thrombolysis is used:
ST elevation myocardial infarction: Large trials have shown that mortality can be reduced using thrombolysis (particularly fibrinolysis) in treating heart attacks. It works by stimulating secondary fibrinolysis by plasmin through infusion of analogs of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the protein that normally activates plasmin. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a minimally invasive procedure in which coronary stents are deployed to open obstructed arteries is superior to fibrinolytic therapy, but fibrinolysis is still recommended for use in healthcare settings where PCI is not available in a timely manner.
Stroke: Thrombolysis reduces major disability or death when given within 3 hours (or perhaps even 6 hours) of ischaemic stroke onset when there are no contraindications to treatment.
Massive pulmonary embolism. For the treatment of a massive pulmonary embolism, catheter-directed therapy is a safer and more effective alternative to systemic thrombolysis.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Thrombolysis” as breakdown (lysis) of blood clots formed in blood vessels, using medication. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1931577. The Library of Congress control number is sh91000682. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thrombolysis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.