[Thrombolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction in the general internal medicine ward].

During a 4-year period, 59 patients with the acute myocardial infarction were treated at the ICU of the district hospital. Streptokinase, used for the treatment, was given i.v. after and average period of 3 hours following the onset of stenocardia. Elaborated protocol was observed as to the selection of patients for thrombolytic therapy and its tactics. Basing on the indirect criteria of reperfusion, a recanalization of the occluded artery was noted in 74.6% of the treated patients. Complications occurred most frequently during the first 24 hours of the hospitalisation. None was serious enough to require special therapeutic measures. Complications of the thrombolytic treatment were less frequent after the first day of the hospitalisation. Thrombolytic treatment of the acute myocardial infarction with intravenous streptokinase is safe and effective, and may successfully be carried out also in district hospitals in which cardiac catheterization and cardiosurgery are inaccessible.