Abstract： Objective To study the effects of thrombolysis for the treatment of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) in early stage (within 6 hours after onset) in hospital, and to demonstrate the benefit of urokinase in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction. Method The patients with cerebral infarction treated with UK within 3hours after onset in the emergency department were enrolled as the study group, and those treated with thrombolytics in the neurological unit over the same period were taken as the control group. Results The average time from onset of ACI to starting thrombolytic therapy was 45 minutes in the study group and 80 minutes in the control group.The number of patients treated with thrombolysis within 3 hours was 39 ( 14.4% ) in the study group and 29 (10.5%) in the control group. There were significant differences in the scores of the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) after thrombolytic therapy and in Bathel index of complete or nearly complete recovery rate between two groups. The length of hospital stay was shorter in patients of the study group than that in the control group. Conclusions The thrombolytic treatment with urokinase employed to the patients in the early stage of acute cerebral infarction leads to better outcomes than that in the later stage.