Cerebrovascular complications of streptokinase infusion
M. S. Aldrich, S. A. Sherman and H. S. Greenberg
Ninety-one patients treated with streptokinase for vascular occlusion were
studied retrospectively to document the incidence of cerebral hemorrhage.
Three cerebrovascular complications occurred. Two patients had cerebral
hemorrhage, one following limb ischemia, the other after acute myocardial
infarction. The third patient received streptokinase for an occluded right
subclavian bypass graft and suffered a right frontoparietal infarction,
presumably secondary to retrograde embolization, but not angiographically
proved. This incidence of cerebrovascular complications must be taken
within the framework of the baseline incidence following systemic ischemia,
but suggests that caution be exercised with this therapy.
