Statistical Analysis of the Incidence of Peritonitis on Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis

In order to understand and eventually prevent peritonitis, which still is the most frequent complication of CAPD, workers in this field must agree on which statistical methods will be applied to the study of this complication. After a trial of various methods among our CAPD patients, we have concluded that life-table analysis, considering the first episode of peritonitis as an end event, provides the simplest method of expressing the probability of developing peritonitis. The comparison of two subpopulations of dialysis patients or of the performance of two units can be done by the comparison of the two peritonitis probability curves calculated from the respective data. Finally, regression analysis be tween the probability to develop peritonitis within a specific interval on CAPD and calendar time of entrance into the program ot Ters a simple way to assess changes in the performance of a dialysis center over time.