[Does CAPD have a future?]

Five decades were between the first clinical use of the peritoneal dialysis and the introduction of the continuous ambulant peritoneal dialysis (CAPD)-five decades with many problems and little acceptance of this technique by patients and physicians. Greater week clearances in the CAPD led to a significant increase of the effectiveness in comparison to intermittent therapeutic forms, so that the popularity of this method of treatment rapidly increased. A simple technical handling and the patient's independence of the machine essentially contribute to the popularity of the CAPD. Significant results in the combat against peritonitis, the main problem of the CAPD, made the CAPD a recognized method of treatment for the terminal renal insufficiency. Should not unforeseeable innovations decisively improve the technique of haemodialysis, the CAPD will maintain its position beside the haemodialysis also in the following decade.