Local lysis in acute basilar artery occlusions

Thrombosis of the basilar artery is not a rare disease, and the mortality is reported to be 60 to 80%. Present standard therapy with heparin infusions yields poor results. The high risk of intracerebral haemorrhage prohibits systemic fibrinolytic therapy. Due to these facts and good experience in our department with the use of local intracoronary lysis in acute myocardial infarction, the method of local thrombolysis was applied in a case of acute basiliar artery thrombosis. Fibrinolytic therapy was started via an angiography catheter placed in the vertebral artery in a 28 year-old woman with hemiplegia and severe brain stem symptoms. The patient received 200,000 IU streptokinase within 2 hours and subsequently 300,000 IU urokinase within 10 hours. The vessel re-opened completely. The neurological symptoms decreased during the following weeks. Based on this experience and according to rare reports in the literature we believe local low-dose thrombolysis to be a causal therapy promising success for acute thrombosis of the basilar artery. This therapy can be carried out in every medical centre able to perform selective angiography and experienced in the administration of fibrinolytic drugs. (Author)