title: Skin disorders in peritoneal dialysis patients: An underdiagnosed subject.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine all skin changes in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients followed up in our unit.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients on PD program for at least three months without any known chronic skin disease were included in the study. Patients with already diagnosed skin disease, those who have systemic diseases that may cause skin lesions, patients with malignancies and those who did not give informed consent were excluded from the study. All patients were examined by the same predetermined dermatologist with all findings recorded. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data including measures of dialysis adequacy of patients were recorded also. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 16.0 standard version was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the patients followed up in our PD unit, those without exclusion criteria who gave informed consent, 38 patients were included in the study with male/female ratio and mean age of 26/12 and 50.3 ± 13.7 years, respectively. The duration of CKD was 7.86 ± 4.16 years and the mean PD duration was 47.1 ± 29.6 mo. Primary kidney disease was diabetic nephropathy in 11, nephrosclerosis in six, uropathologies in four, chronic glomerulonephritis in three, chronic pyelonephritis in three, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease in three patients while cause was unknown in eight patients. All patients except for one patient had at least one skin lesion. Loss of lunula, onychomycosis and tinea pedis are the most frequent skin disorders recorded in the study group. Diabetic patients had tinea pedis more frequently (P = 0.045). No relationship of skin findings was detected with primary renal diseases, comorbidities and medications that the patients were using.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Skin abnormalities are common in in PD patients. The most frequent skin pathologies are onychomycosis and tinea pedis which must not be overlooked.
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gursu
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sami
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uzun
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Derya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Topcuoğlu
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Leyli Kadriye
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Koc
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Lamiye
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yucel
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdullah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sumnu
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Egemen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cebeci
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Oktay
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ozkan
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Behlul
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Leyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Koc
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Savas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.affiliation: Meltem Gursu, Lamiye Yucel, Rumeyza Kazancioglu, Department of Nephrology, Bezmialem Vakif University Medical Faculty, 34093 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Rumeyza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kazancioglu
keywords: Onychomycosis; Peritoneal dialysis; Skin; Tinea pedis; Xeroderma