Peritoneal dialysis in the nursing home.

BACKGROUND

During the past few decades, the demographics of end stage renal disease have been changed significantly with the emerging predominance of elderly patients. Elderly dialysis patients are usually more dependent and may need long-term placement in a long-term care facility. Failure to meet the needs of these patients may have a significant impact on the peritoneal dialysis program. We report our experience of starting peritoneal dialysis program in a community-based Long Term Care Facility (LTCF).

METHODS

During the period of 2000-2001, after appropriate training of nursing home personnel, we admitted 8 peritoneal dialysis patients to one community-based nursing home. All information presented here has been collected through chart review.

RESULTS

At the time of admission the average age of the 8 patients was 77.3 +/- 7.2 years (range 69 to 91 years). All patients had several comorbid diseases and six of the eight were bed-ridden. The patients stayed in the facility for a total of 29.57 patient months. One patient had three episodes of peritonitis within three months (all culture negative) and has been excluded from the analysis of the overall peritonitis rate. The peritonitis rate for the other seven patients was 1 per 7.54 patient month. Six patients were readmitted to hospital because of peritonitis, severe malnutrition and hip fracture. Four of them died in the hospital. One died in the nursing home. One patient remains in the nursing home at the present time.

CONCLUSIONS

Our experience suggests that peritoneal dialysis can be achieved in a community-based nursing home. This requires a systematic training program for the LTCF personnel and the availability of a "dedicated" nephrology dialysis staff. This is crucial to the success of the program. It is important that patients, their families and ESRD care professionals are informed of the limited survival expectation particularly for very old and severely impaired patients.