Gastric emptying of an indigestible solid in patients with end-stage renal disease on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.

Using radiopaque markers, we evaluated gastric emptying in 10 male patients with end-stage renal disease on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and in 15 normal men. Dialysis patients were studied twice, once without peritoneal dialysate in the abdomen (drained) and once with 2 L of dialysate in the abdomen (full). Each normal man and 9 of 10 dialysis patients, when drained, emptied all 10 markers by 6 h after a test meal. In contrast, 5 of the 10 dialysis patients, when full, had delayed emptying of radiopaque markers. Thus, continuous ambulatory dialysis may delay gastric emptying of indigestible solids.