CLINICAL EXPERIENCE WITH STREPTOKINASE AND STREPTODORNASE

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Abstract
In a series of laboratory and clinical investigations, which have been in progress for about 20 years, Tillett and his associates1 have demonstrated that the catalytic agent streptokinase and the enzyme desoxyribonuclease, or streptodornase, which are produced in abundance during the active growth of certain strains of beta hemolytic streptococci (group A), may be successfully employed as highly useful topical adjuncts to surgical or other treatment of certain acute and chronic infections and in other instances of disease in which clotting of blood or its elements creates a therapeutic problem. In 1933, Tillett and Garner1g showed that a factor present in broth cultures of beta hemolytic streptococci (group A) was capable of rapidly bringing about the liquefaction of human fibrin clots. This lytic principle, which was first named fibrinolysin, was present in the cell-free filtrates of streptococcic cultures and was specific in its action on fibrin obtained from human