Chronic peritoneal dialysis.

Since the introduction of the permanent peritoneal catheter, interest in chronic peritoneal dialysis is increasing. The automatic peritoneal dialysis cycler and the reverse osmosis peritoneal dialysis machine have been other development that made chronic peritoneal possible. Chronic peritoneal dialysis is indicated for the children, the elderly, those without hemodialysis access sites, those living along (for home dialysis) and the diabetics, whose retinopathy seems to progress less on peritoneal dialysis than on hemodialysis. Patients awaiting a kidney transplant can be maintained equally satisfactorily on peritoneal dialysis as on hemodialysis. Because of its simplicity almost any patient can be trained for home peritoneal dialysis, and a high incidence of rehabilitation can be achieved. A flow rate of 4 1/hr with 21 exchanges, 40 hours a week, seem to the ideal dialysis requirements. Complications of chronic peritoneal dialysis include those related to the permanent catheter such as one or two way obstruction and those related the dialysis itself. The latter can be either acute (i.e. peritonitis etc.) or chornic such as neuropathy, renal osteodystrophy, anemia etc. Integrated with hemodialysis and transplantation, peritoneal provides the nephrologists with the ability to treat his patients with the most appropriate treatment.