Peritoneal dialysis for chronic kidney disease patients: a single-center experience in Saudi Arabia.

To evaluate the peritoneal dialysis (PD) program in our hospital, we retrospectively studied all patients dialyzed with this modality over the last 5 years. A total of 56 patients having end-stage renal disease (ESRD), with mean age ± SD of 49 ± 20 years (range 16-92 years), were dialyzed with PD: 38 (68%) patients with continuous ambulatory PD and 18 (32%) patients with automated PD. Twenty-six (46%) patients were females. The mean follow-up time of these patients was 17 ± 14 months. The underlying etiologies for ESRD in these patients were diabetes mellitus (48%), glomerulonephritis (9%), and hypertension (7%). Twenty-seven patients (48%) were put on PD from the start, while 29 (52%) patients were switched from hemodialysis (HD) to PD. Nineteen (34%) patients developed a total of 29 episodes of peritonitis. The incidence of peritonitis was 0.4 episode per patient-year. Exit-site infections occurred in 17 (30%) patients. No tunnel infection was observed during the study period. Non-infectious catheter-related complications occurred in 12.5% of the patients; six (11%) patients had hernia (umbilical or inguinal). At the end of the study, 23 (41%) patients continued on PD, 17 (30%) received a renal transplant, 7 (13%) suffered technique failure and subsequently switched to HD, and 9 (16%) patients died. To conclude, our study demonstrates that the rate of PD related complications is found to be quite low in our program, with an acceptable technique failure rate and mortality. Therefore, PD is a safe and an effective treatment modality in the integrated care approach to patients with ESRD.