Acute thrombosis of the intracranial dural sinus: direct thrombolytic treatment.

Acute intracranial dural sinus thrombosis may have severe morbidity or fatal complications without appropriate treatment. Direct dural sinus venography can be performed safely with a soft Tracker catheter to document the fresh thrombus as an adjunct to CT or MR. We are reporting our experience with successful direct urokinase thrombolytic therapy in three cases of superior sagittal sinus and two cases of transverse and sigmoid sinus thrombosis. All five patients have recovered completely without any residual clinical deficit.