Fibrinolytic therapy is a useful addition to the armamentarium of most clinicians. Patients with fibrin-based intraluminal clots are seen by almost all physicians. With proper patient selection and careful physician adherence to dosage schedule and monitoring, the incidence of significant complications with fibrinolytic agents is about the same as with heparin therapy. Heparin stops the thrombotic process, whereas fibrinolytic therapy not only stops the thrombotic process, but often reestablishes a normal, hemodynamic state. Patients who undergo fibrinolytic therapy are spared long-term problems like amputation and the postphlebitic syndrome.