Systematic review of fibrinolytic-facilitated percutaneous coronary intervention: Potential benefits and future challenges

BACKGROUND: Facilitated percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is defined as the administration of fibrinolytic therapy and/or glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitors to minimize myocardial ischemia time while waiting for PCI. A pooled meta-analysis suggested that facilitated PCI was associated with higher rates of mortality and morbidity compared with nonfacilitated PCI. OBJECTIVE: The heterogeneous and complex trials of facilitated PCI were systematically reviewed to identify where this strategy may be beneficial and deserving of further research. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane database, the Internet and conference proceedings were searched to obtain relevant trials. Human studies that randomly assigned patients to fibrinolytic-facilitated PCI (administration of fibrinolytic therapy alone or fit combination with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors before angiography) versus nonfacilitated PCI were included. RESULTS: Nine trials encompassing 3836 patients were reviewed. The facilitated PCI strategy was fibrinolytic therapy alone tit seven trials and half-dose fibrinolytic therapy plus GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors in two trials. In patients Who had fibrinolysis less than 2 It after symptom onset (mainly in the prehospital setting) and/or slightly delayed PCI 3 h to 24 h after fibrinolysis, facilitated PCI was associated with the greatest Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) grade 3 flow and a trend toward reduced mortality. Overall, facilitated PCI was associated with increased intracranial hemorrhage and reinfarction. Combining half-dose fibrinolytic therapy and GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors reduced reinfarction but increased major bleeding. CONCLUSIONS: Facilitated PCI cannot be recommended Outside Of experimental protocols at ibis time. Further research should focus on selecting patients with higher benefit-to-risk ratios and performing prehospital fibrinolysis with optimal antiplatelet or antichrombin therapy, as well,is slightly delayed PCI tit patients who are stable or geographically removed from PCI facilities.