Fibrinolysis in the Human Eye

Abstract

There are several ways to avoid the complications caused by intraocular fibrin as it occurs during inflammations and hemorrhages. One is to prevent the formation of fibrin by the prophylactic use of anticoagulants, as has been demonstrated in animal experiments. 1-7 Once fibrin has formed, the physiologic pathways that normally lead to fibrinolysis may be used, namely, the activation of plasminogen (profibrinolysin) to plasmin (fibrinolysin). This can be achieved clinically by the use of trypsin, streptokinase, and by fever therapy, since it is known that temperatures due to pyrogen injections are able to initiate fibrinolysis. 8-19 A third possibility is to effect fibrinolysis by plasmin itself. 20-26 This paper reports experiences with human fibrinolysin (Actase)* in the treatment of ophthalmic conditions which were complicated by the presence of fibrin. Aqueous solutions of fibrinolysis containing 1,000 units per milliliter were used on 45 eyes with various pathologic conditions as shown in