Risk factors associated with peritoneal dialysis catheter survival: a 9-year single-center study in 315 patients.

PURPOSE

To review the peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter outcomes at our center and assess factors affecting catheter survival.

METHODS

We carried out a retrospective study on 315 patients who had their first PD catheter placed between January 2001 and September 2009 at the UT Southwestern/DaVita Peritoneal Dialysis Clinic at Dallas, Texas. Medical records were reviewed for demographic and clinical information of the patients. The primary end point of the study was PD catheter failure, defined as removal of a dysfunctional PD catheter due to catheter-related complications. Catheter survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to identify factors that are independently associated with catheter survival.

RESULTS

The mean age of the patients was 49.7 ± 29 yrs. The study population included 54.6% females, 42.5% African American, 27.9% Caucasian and 22.9% Hispanic patients. Diabetes was the primary etiology of end-stage renal disease in 43.2% of patients. More than 90% of patients had one or more co-morbidities, and 57.5% had previous abdominal surgery. The mean BMI for the group was 28.6 ± 13.8 kg/m2. Less than a quarter of the patients (24.1%) had non-infectious/mechanical catheter problems. Overall PD catheter survival rates over 12, 24 and 36 months were 92.9%, 91.9% and 91.1%, respectively. PD catheter-related non-infectious problem was the only independent variable that was significantly associated with catheter survival (hazard ratio 22.467; 95% CI 6.665-75.732). No significant association was observed between the PD catheter survival and other risk factors including age, body mass index (BMI), diabetic status, co-morbidities, previous abdominal surgeries or infections.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study shows an excellent 3-yr PD catheter survival (91.1%). Only PD catheter-related non-infectious problems are significantly associated with catheter failure. Other factors such as age, gender, race, BMI, diabetic status, co-morbidities, previous abdominal surgeries, peritoneal infections or exit site/tunnel infections were not found to affect the PD catheter survival and should not be considered barriers to PD initiation.