Prolonged external cardiac massage is often regarded as a contraindication for thrombolytic therapy because of the risk of fatal hemorrhage. The influence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on complications of thrombolytic bleeding was assessed analyzing data of all patients with myocardial infarction admitted to our clinic during the 10-year period between 1978 and 1987. From the total of 2,147 patients with acute myocardial infarction, 590 received thrombolytic therapy (intracoronary in 229, intravenous in 400). Of these, 43 patients underwent prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation and received thrombolysis within a time interval of less than 24 hours. In 21 patients, resuscitation was performed within a short period of time (5 minutes to 20 hours) after thrombolysis (10 intracoronary, 10 intravenous, 1 intravenous + intracoronary) had been initiated; 9 of these patients survived (43%). In the other 22 patients, thrombolytic therapy was initiated during ongoing resuscitation (n = 6: intravenous in 5, intravenous + intracoronary in 1) or in the early phase (10 to 120 minutes) after successful resuscitation (n = 16: intracoronary in 10, intravenous in 4, intravenous + intracoronary in 2). From this group, 14 patients survived (in-hospital mortality 36%). The mean duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation was 36 +/- 32 minutes (range 4 to 120). Autopsy studies were performed in 16 of 20 decreased patients. Bleeding complications occurred in 8 of 43 patients. No case of bleeding was directly related to cardiocompression despite the often traumatic procedure with rib fractures verified in 17 patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)