Survival and technical failure in a large cohort of Thai CAPD patients

To evaluate patient and technique survival, and to analyze factors influencing survival in a large Thai CAPD program.

A single center, retrospective, observational cohort study was carried out to examine the baseline factors affecting patient and technique survival.

From January 1995 to December 2005, 322 incident CAPD patients were recruited for study. One hundred and thirteen patients (35.1%) died during the study period of 7,706 patient-months. Median patient survival time was 46.4 months. The major cause of death was related to infection. In multivariate analysis, only age at enrollment and baseline serum albumin were strong risk factors of death. Median technique survival was 41.2 months. The major cause of technique failure was peritoneal dialysis related infection. History of peritonitis, baseline serum albumin, and dialysis commencement in recent era were technique failure predictors. A neutral effect of self and caregiver performer was observed in the present study.

Patient survival in the presented institute is similar to that reported in Western countries. Age and baseline serum albumin were the strongest predictors of death.