The efficacy of intraperitoneally administered gentamicin and rifampin as initial treatment of peritoneal dialysis-related peritonitis.

For the initial treatment of peritonitis complicating peritoneal dialysis (PD), we use intraperitoneally administered gentamicin (broad spectrum and low costs) and rifampin (intracellular bactericidal activity). In order to assess the efficacy of this treatment, the outcome of 248 suspected episodes of peritonitis (abdominal pain, cloudy effluent, and a leukocyte count over 100/mm3) was evaluated. Of 227 cases with a positive culture of the PD effluent, one bacterial species was cultured in 188 cases (75.