[Comparative overview of the nutritional status of patients on hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis]

Malnutrition is often seen in patients on dialysis. Only few methods could be used in evaluation of nutritional state because of metabolic disorders which are present in patients with uraemia. In this article we evaluated nutritional condition of 50 patients which were divided in three groups according to the type of dialysis: I group--24 patients treated with haemodialysis during 6-42 months; II group--12 patients treated with intermittent peritoneal dialysis during 8-36 months, and III group--14 patients treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis during 6-34 months. Nutritional state was evaluated with anthropometric and biochemical indicators, such as body weight, triceps skin-fold thickness, mid-arm muscle circumference, serum albumin, transferrin, C3, C4. The results have shown that signs of malnutrition were markedly present in the first year of dialysis in 33 (66%) patients. There was no significant difference in nutritional state between the three observed groups.