Phenformin and Ethyloestrenol in Recurrent Venous Thrombosis

Abstract

Altogether 75 patients, 60 of whom had recurrent idiopathic deep venous thrombosis, 10 recurrent superficial thrombophlebitis and 5 retinal venous thrombosis, were given a combination of 100 mg phenformin and 8 mg ethyloestrenol a day for periods varying between 3 and 48 months (mean 16.2). Initially, all the patients had an abnormally low plasminogen activator content in the walls of superficial veins and/or a decreased capacity to release plasminogen activator from the vein walls on venous occlusion of the arms. The combination elicited a significant increase in the spontaneous fibrinolytic activity and in the local fibrinolytic activity during standardized venous occlusion of the arms (assayed on fibrin plates) after treatment for 3 months (ppp<0.01). After treatment for 12 months all the patients except 2 were normal. The patients in this material had had 2–20 episodes of venous thrombosis, the most recent 5 years before the institution of treatment, in spite of dicoumarol treatment. During treatment 9 thrombotic episodes occurred; in 5 of these patients the fibrinolytic activity of the vessel wall was not normal at the time of the recurrence. Except in 1 patient, who developed lactic acidosis, the side-effects were not severe.