Fibrinolytic enhancement with stanozolol fails to improve symptoms and signs in patients with post-surgical back pain.

Scand J Rheumatol. 1991;20(6):414-8.

Fibrinolytic enhancement with stanozolol fails to improve symptoms and signs in
patients with post-surgical back pain.

Cooper RG, Mitchell WS, Illingworth KJ, Jayson MI.

Rheumatic Diseases Centre, University of Manchester, Hope Hospital, UK.

An open trial with the fibrinolytic enchancing agent stanozolol was completed by
eighteen patients (14 male) with severe back and radicular pain, despite previous
lumbar surgery for prolapsed intervertebral disc. Assessments of their pain,
disability and plasma fibrinolytic activity were undertaken before and after 12
or 24 months of therapy. Prior to treatment patients exhibited significant
fibrinolytic abnormalities when compared with 84 normal controls; euglobulin clot
lysis time (ELT) 442 vs 157 mins and fibrin plate lysis area (FPLA) 61 vs 113 mm2
respectively (p less than 0.01 for both). Stanozolol therapy normalised patients'
fibrinolytic activity within three months. Disappointingly there were no
concomitant clinical improvements in spinal pain or mobility despite 12 or 24
months of treatment. These results may indicate that perineural fibrosis, once
formed, is not amenable to such therapy.