Hemodialysis together with peritoneal dialysis is one of the simplest ways to maintain adequacy in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.

When long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD) is performed without change in the dialysis prescription, uremic symptoms appear owing to insufficient dialysis dose. In such cases, an increase in dialysate volume is required, but this increase is difficult to obtain in all patients owing to limitations in abdominal volume, lifestyle, or body weight. A combination of PD and hemodialysis (HD) is the simplest method of overcoming these limitations. Combination therapy--HD once per week for 4 hours and PD 6 days per week--was performed in our patients. The total weekly dialysis dose (urea) was calculated as follows: to convert the dialysis dose by HD to that of continuous treatment, the equivalent renal urea clearance (EKR) was calculated and added to the dialysis dose by PD. Combination therapy was performed in 12 patients. The reasons for the combination therapy included ultrafiltration (UF) loss in 2 patients, uremic symptoms in 3 patients, poor fluid management in 5 patients, umbilical hernia in 1 patient, and hydrothorax in 1 patient. Total Kt/V per week was increased from 1.61 +/- 0.19 to 2.05 +/- 0.25 in these patients. In the 2 patients with UF loss, weight control became easier after the combination therapy was started, and this control was possible with hypotonic dialysate alone. In patients with uremic symptoms, the symptoms improved; furthermore, dermal pigmentation improved in these patients. In summary, the dialysis dose was increased and body fluids became controllable after inducing combination therapy, resulting in improvement uremic symptoms and increased quality of life.