Antifibrinolytic therapy in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. A report of the cooperative aneurysm study

H. P. Adams Jr, D. W. Nibbelink, J. C. Torner and A. L. Sahs

Antifibrinolytic therapy was used in 1,114 patients who had aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and who were treated by the 13 institutions of the Cooperative Aneurysm Study. Patients were started on treatment within one week after SAH was diagnosed, and therapy was discontinued 14 days after the ictus. Rebleeding occurred in 10% of the treated patients. Overall mortality among the treated patients during the two weeks following hemorrhage was 10.7%. Though some minor and a few major side effects occurred, serious complications of therapy were infrequent.