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INTERMITTENT PERITONEAL DIALYSIS IN THE TREATMENT OF END‐STAGE RENAL FAILURE
Author(s) -
Walker Rowan G.,
Atkins Robert C.,
Thomson Napier M.,
Scott David F.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1979.tb104204.x
Subject(s) - medicine , peritoneal dialysis , peritonitis , dialysis , surgery , incidence (geometry) , transplantation , complication , optics , physics
Our experience of 54 patients with end‐stage renal failure, who were treated with intermittent peritoneal dialysis and compared with patients maintained by haemodialysis over the years 1972 to 1978, has been reviewed. All patients received peritoneal dialysis for more than six weeks. The total experience was 32.8 patient dialysis‐years, 48% as home dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis was used as an interim procedure in 19 patients who were waiting for haemodialysis. However, in 35 patients (particularly in the very young and elderly, and in situations of poor social support), recurrent peritoneal dialysis was chosen as the definitive dialysis therapy. Dialysis was assessed as “adequate” in all, but two, patients. The major complication of peritoneal dialysis was peritonitis, although its over‐all incidence of 1.31 episodes per patient dialysis‐year was low. An attack of peritonitis occurred every nine months of patient exposure, though the incidence of bacterial peritonitis averaged only once every 26 months. Fifty per cent of patients never had an episode of peritonitis. Intermittent peritoneal dialysis was associated with greater morbidity and mortality than haemodialysis, perhaps due, in part, to the older age of the peritoneal dialysis group. Intermittent peritoneal dialysis is a valuable adjunct to haemodialysis and transplantation in the treatment of end‐stage renal failure.