Haemolytic-uraemic syndrome treated with heparin.

Three children with the haemolytic-uraemic syndrome were treated with intravenous heparin. Peritoneal dialysis was required for two of them, one of whom died after 26 days of therapy. Renal biopsy specimens from the two survivors showed widespread glomerular disease, which appeared permanent in one case, but only occasional thrombi. It is suggested that heparin therapy, by preventing further intrarenal thrombosis, allowed the normal fibrinolytic mechanisms to remove previously formed thrombi.