What Are the Economic Aspects Involved in Thrombolytic Therapy?
The thrombolytic agents available at present, streptokinase and urokinase, are expensive drugs, especially the latter, and their use in patients with venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism increases the cost of management of the acute thrombotic event. On the other hand, the economic burden imposed on society by the late morbidity of proximal venous thrombosis may be relieved by more widespread use of thrombolytic therapy, which under optimal circumstances restores venous patency and valvular function and prevents the subsequent development of the post-phlebitic syndrome. Patients with phlebographic demonstration of complete lysis of proximal venous thrombi by thrombolytic treatment are spared the usual sequelae of venous stasis and their associated costs, which have been estimated at a total of nearly $40,000 per patient over a ten year period, in severe cases. The frequency of postthrombotic sequelae in patients with thrombi in the popliteal, femoral, or iliac veins is sufficiently
