Aspirin cannot dissolve thrombus or thrombosis as aspirin cannot break up blood clots.
Although aspirin can help prevent blood clot formation, but cannot dissolve blood clots that have already formed.
Exercise can help dissolve thrombus as exercise helps boost blood circulation, which helps to lower your risk of blood clots.
Remaining active can also help to support your body in breaking down blood clots that have formed already.
Doing gentle activities like walking, cycling and swimming are also great choices for dissolving thrombus and blood clots as they are easy on the body and also still very effective.
The medications that are used to dissolve an existing thrombus or blood clot are thrombolytics or fibrinolytics.
Thrombolytics or fibrinolytics are powerful, clot busting drugs that work to dissolve blood cltos by converting plasminogen to plasmin, which is an enzyme that breaks down the fibrin mesh that holds the blood clot together.
Although the thrombolytics and fibrinolytics carry a high risk of causing severe bleeding, so they are administered in a hospital by an emergency or critical care medical team.
Common thrombolytic medications that are used for dissolving thrombus include.
Alteplase (t-PA) is the standard of care for ischemic strokes, pulmonary embolisms, and heart attacks.
Tenecteplase is a newer-generation medication that can be given as a single injection and is highly effective at dissolving large clots with a slightly smaller bleeding risk.
Reteplase acts faster than older generations and is often used in cardiovascular cases.
Urokinase typically is used for peripheral vascular clots and blocked catheters.
Streptokinase an older, less expensive thrombolytic, but it is used less often in North America due to higher risks of allergic reactions.
Thrombolytics actively break apart and dissolve the existing, life threatening blood clots.
And anticoagulants, like heparin or warfarin do not dissolve existing clots but prevent them from growing larger or even forming in the first place.
Thrombolytic therapy is used in time sensitive and life threatening emergencies, where a blood clot obstructs blood flow to the vital organs.
These emergencies include pulmonary embolism, where the thrombolytics are used for large, life threatening clots in the lungs.
Myocardial infarction also known as a heart attack, the thrombolytics are used to dissolve major clots that block coronary arteries.
Acute ischemic stroke, the thrombolytics have to be administered rapidly, often within 3 hours of symptom onset to restore blood flow to the brain.