Current status of antifibrinolytic drugs

Antifibrinolytic drugs, in particular, epsilon-aminocaproic acid and tranexamic acid, have been used in the management of a wide range of both bleeding and non-haemorrhagic disorders. Recognition of their side-effects and complications, comparison of their efficacy with other forms of therapy and more critical evaluation of their value has reduced the range of their definitive indications to a limited number of relatively uncommon situations; these comprise primary hyperplasminaemia, menorrhagia in women in whom oestrogens are contraindicated or in those with von Willebrand's disease, severe traumatic hyphaema, dental extraction in haemophiliacs and hereditary angioedema in patients in whom treatment with anabolic steroids is contraindicated. In a few conditions the possible benefit of antifibrinolytic agents, alone or supplementary to other forms of therapy, is unresolved; these include upper gastrointestinal bleeding, recurrent epistaxis and abruptio placentae.