Long-term, successful peritoneal dialysis: end-stage renal disease core indicators study data

The proportion of U.S. dialysis patients using peritoneal dialysis (PD) continues to fall. The reasons for the decline are presumably related to reduced patient recruitment and poor patient retention (technique failure). Yet, the 1998 Peritoneal Dialysis Core Indicators Study (PD-CIS) report suggests that PD provides satisfactory "long-term" renal replacement for many patients, and, further, that this capacity is becoming more obvious and is beginning to mimic center hemodialysis results. Several patient characteristics suggest that the key to successful "long-term" PD involves the delivery of "adequate dialysis" and that increasing attention to PD prescription and dialysis delivery has been accompanied by an improvement in PD technique success.