Postoperative deep venous thrombosis in a woman with congenital afibrinogenaemia treated with fibrinogen concentrates

Discussion Fibrinogen is a plasma glycoprotein with a central role in the haemostatic process both as an adhesion protein essential to platelet aggregation and as a precursor of insoluble fibrin that forms the haemostatic clot. It has been suggested that thrombotic events are related to thrombin-induced platelet aggregation in vivo due to poor neutralization of this enzyme, in turn due to lack of its adsorption on fibrin. During the activation of the coagulation cascade, the relative absence of fibrinogen results in an increase in 'free' thrombin as a result of the lack of the antithrombin activity of fibrin.