title: Differing dialysis treatment strategies and outcome.
abstract: The choice of a dialysis treatment depends on many factors, both medical and non-medical. A full and rational treatment requires easy access to a transplantation programme and to all dialysis modalities, extracorporeal or peritoneal. Presently, haemodialysis (HD) is used almost exclusively for in-centre or limited care treatment, peritoneal dialysis (PD) being preferred for home treatment. On HD, bicarbonate buffer is used in preference to acetate. Mixed convective-diffusive HD techniques have a very limited utilization world-wide because of their cost. Use of PD and automated PD continues to grow, although slowly. In our single-centre experience on a large number of patients, 10-year patient survival is not different on CAPD and HD, and there is initial lower risk of death on CAPD for patients > or = 75 years of age. Drop-out from CAPD has increased in recent years, mainly due to the patient/partner 'burn-out'. Drop-out is less for the elderly, and the difference in modality change between CAPD and HD decreases with increasing patient age, suggesting a clear indication for CAPD in the elderly, or in adults waiting for a transplant. The clinical background, e.g. the presence of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, dyslipidaemia or obesity, is also important in the choice of method.
authors.affiliation: Chair of Nephrology, University of Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maiorca
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Cancarini
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zubani
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Movilli
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brunori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000150:complications; D010531:Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory; D011788:Quality of Life; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome