BACKGROUND: Fibrinolysis is often used in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes with ST segment elevation (STEMI). Major cardiac outcomes were reduced with antiplatelet therapy intensification, but with increased risk of bleeding. Our objective was to assess the risk of vascular bleeding in patients undergoing early percutaneous coronary intervention after thrombolysis. METHODS: Between February 2010 and December 2011, five public emergency rooms in the city of São Paulo and the Emergency Health Care Service (Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência - SAMU) used tenecteplase (TNK) to treat patients with STEMI. Patients were referred to a single tertiary hospital and were submitted to early cardiac catheterization during hospitalization. All examinations were performed via the femoral artery and BARC criteria were used to classify bleeding. RESULTS: We evaluated 199 patients, of whom 193 had no bleeding of vascular origin (group 1) and 6 (3%) developed this complication (group 2). The median time between the administration of the fibrinolytic agent and catheterization was 24 hours in group 1 and 14.7 hours in group 2. According to BARC criteria, 1 patient had type 3a bleeding (hematoma in the inguinal region with a hemoglobin decrease of 3-5 g/dL), 2 patients had type 3b bleeding (1 not related to vascular access and 1 retroperitoneal hematoma with a hemoglobin decrease ≥ 5 g/dL) and the remaining patients had type 1 bleeding (small inguinal hematomas). Blood transfusions were required in 2 patients. None of the patients died due to vascular complications after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, early catheterization via the femoral artery as part of a pharmaco-invasive strategy, using TNK as a fibrinolytic agent, had a low vascular bleeding rate, comparable to that of elective angioplasties.
Fibrinolysis; Angioplasty; Myocardial infarction; Hemorrhage
