Risk of fatal cerebrovascular accident in patients on peritoneal dialysis versus hemodialysis.

Several reports have suggested that the incidence of hemorrhagic stroke may be greater on hemodialysis as compared with that among the general population and that patients with intracranial hemorrhage should be treated with peritoneal dialysis rather than hemodialysis. However, whether the risk of fatal stroke is greater on hemodialysis versus peritoneal dialysis has not been systematically examined. In this study, the case of a diabetic patient with extensive peripheral vascular disease who, after 7 years on hemodialysis, was changed to peritoneal dialysis and subsequently suffered two strokes over a 5-month period, is reported. Recent data from the United States Renal Data System, which allow a comparison of death rates from stroke in large numbers of hemodialysis versus peritoneal dialysis patients, are reviewed. These data suggest that the risk of death from stroke may actually be greater for patients on peritoneal dialysis versus hemodialysis in spite of their having a lesser prevalence of preexisting cerebrovascular disease. This risk was greatest for elderly diabetic black patients and women, who experienced a nearly twofold-greater odds favoring death from stroke on peritoneal dialysis versus hemodialysis. Selection of a dialysis modality for a patient beginning renal replacement therapy may require the consideration of such data, particularly in those patients with extensive preexisting vascular disease.