Role of Intracoronary Fibrinolytic Therapy in Contemporary PCI Practice

Plaque rupture or plaque erosion leads to intracoronary thrombus formation resulting in coronary artery occlusion and ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Early restoration of blood flow in occluded coronary artery is the mainstay of therapy and it can be achieved by either thrombolytic therapy or primary percutaneous coronary intervention (P-PCI) or a combination of these two in many different ways. It has been proved that primary PCI is better than thrombolytic therapy in establishing early and effective recanalization of infarct related artery, reducing major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and increasing survival. There have been tremendous advances in PCI techniques over the years with newer stents, thrombectomy devices, and adjunctive pharmacotherapy. However, intracoronary thrombus continues to be the bane of interventional cardiologists. Failure of recanalization, suboptimal results, distal embolization, no reflow and impaired myocardial perfusion are some of the unresolved difficulties, regularly seen during PCI of patients with large intracoronary thrombus burden indicating an unmet need. This review focuses on emerging evidence about the usefulness of intracoronary thrombolytic therapy as an adjunct to PCI in patients with large intracoronary thrombus burden.