Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) is the preferred reperfusion therapy in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), as long as it can be delivered within 90-120 minutes from patient's first medical contact, and is the leading reperfusion strategy in most European countries. However, as PPCI cannot be offered in a timely manner to all patients, fibrinolytic therapy (FT) is the recommended choice in patients with an anticipated delay to PPCI of >90-120 minutes, presenting early after symptom onset and without contra-indications. FT should preferably be started in the pre-hospital setting. Following FT, all patients should be transferred to a PCI-center for rescue PCI or routine coronary angiography with PCI as indicated. Such a pharmaco-invasive strategy, combining FT with invasive treatment, has recently been shown to be non-inferior to PPCI in patients living in areas with long transfer delays to PCI (>60 minutes). In this overview, we will briefly present the evidence for the benefit of FT in STEMI, and discuss the role of FT in the current era of PPCI as well as the optimal treatment following pharmacologic reperfusion.
Keywords: Myocardial infarction; angioplasty; fibrinolysis; percutaneous coronary intervention.