Continuous peritoneal dialysis for children: a decade of worldwide growth and development.

This review surveys the dramatic worldwide expansion of the use of continuous peritoneal dialysis as maintenance renal replacement therapy for children with end-stage renal disease that has occurred during the past decade. Before 1982, fewer than 100 pediatric patients had been treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), and continuous cycler peritoneal dialysis (CCPD) for children was virtually unknown. By the end of 1989 CAPD/CCPD was accounting for 50% of pediatric dialysis patients (less than 15 years old) in the United States, 65% in Canada, and 75% in Australia/New Zealand. Growth of CAPD/CCPD for children in Europe overall has been less spectacular, but there is wide variability from country to country, with CAPD/CCPD concentrated in eight member countries of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association. Several of these countries (notably the United Kingdom, Israel, the Netherlands and the former Federal Republic of Germany) were treating 46% to 70% of pediatric patients with CAPD/CCPD by the end of 1987. Other European countries such as France and Spain showed little growth of CAPD/CCPD over the decade (10% to 20% of patients treated with CAPD/CCPD). In Japan, CAPD for children has just begun, but because Japanese children are likely to spend longer periods on dialysis awaiting transplantation, information on long-term use of CAPD/CCPD in children may be forthcoming from Japan in the future. No effort is made to compare CAPD/CCPD to hemodialysis as a maintenance therapy for children. The advantages of CAPD/CCPD for the young patient, especially the infant and very young child are noted, and from the past decade of dramatic worldwide growth of CAPD/CCPD in pediatric patients it is inferred that the majority of children, (from 50% to 75%) can be successfully treated with these modalities, at least for the short-term (that is, several years), while awaiting transplantation.