Rescue thrombolysis for failure of primary thrombolysis cannot be justified

EDITOR—Drenth et al suggest a policy of repeat thrombolysis if initial thrombolysis fails,1 but their arguments are flawed.

Firstly, they state that a routine policy of rescue angioplasty cannot be justified from a review of the literature, although they fail to mention that the trial by Ellis et al showed a significant reduction in the incidence of death or severe heart failure in the rescue angioplasty group compared with the conservative group.2 …