title: [Assisted peritoneal dialysis].
abstract: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) has a prevalence in Italy that does not exceed 10% of patients in substitution treatment. Among the barriers, which hinder access to DP, the lack of patient autonomy or family support has great importance. In 2012 in Lombardy, the lack of support has prevented 155 new patients to use DP and has forced 17 to stop it. According to the Italian Census of 2012, made by the Peritoneal Dialysis Study Group, Assisted DP involved the 24.5% of patients in 2010. In these cases, the caregiver was a family member in 80.8% of cases, a carer in 12.4%, a homecare nurse in 2.5% and the retirement home staff in 3.9%. In Italy, several regional Governments have sought to encourage home dialysis with economic contributions to the patient or the family. However, so far, none of these interventions has managed to increase the use of DP. In January 2004, we started a program of Assisted PD, using health worker as caregiver, in agreement with ASL Milano and ICP Milano Hospital. In the first 6 months of activity we treated 4 patients, 3 of them had been treated with hemodialysis. We had no critical cases and patients have welcomed this solution. In addition, the costs related to the Assisted PD are lower in comparison with the costs of the hospital hemodialysis. Considering the reliability of the first results, ASL has decided to raise the economic contribution for this activity, allowing us to increase the number of patients to include in Assisted PD.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alberghini
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rastelli
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Nardo
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rognoni
authors.forename: M Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gambirasio
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferrario
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Furiani
authors.forename: Enzo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Corghi
authors.forename: Ivano
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baragetti
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Buzzi
authors.forename: Gaia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Santagostino
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: De Simone
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krefta
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pozzi
mesh_terms: D000488:Allied Health Personnel; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D010530:Peritoneal Dialysis / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data