High C-reactive protein and number of previous episodes at diagnosis increase the risk of catheter removal in peritoneal dialysis-related peritonitis in children.

Background: A minority of patients with peritonitis require removal of peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheters. We examined risk factors at diagnosis that could predict the removal of PD catheter before obtaining the results of treatment success in children with peritonitis.

Methods: We analyzed 156 peritonitis episodes in 57 pediatric PD patients.

Results: The peritonitis rate was 0.68 peritonitis episode per patient year. Catheter removal was required in 22 of 156. C-reactive protein (CRP) ≥ ×10 of upper limit at diagnosis and increased previous episode number were found to be associated with catheter removal (OR [95% CI] 6.4 [2.3-18.1], p = 0.001 and 3.8 [1.4-10.6], p = 0.009).

Conclusion: These findings supported that CRP could be an early marker in predicting catheter removal even before obtaining the results of treatment success. Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that the risk of catheter removal is high in patients with high number of previous episodes especially of three or more.