Peritonitis in patients on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. A changing scene

Peritonitis is a serious and common complication in patients treated with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). This work reports the experiences of this complication in 50 patients treated with CAPD for a total time of 844 months. 129 episodes were observed. Coagulase-negative staphylococci were found to be the causative organisms in 57% of the cases. Most episodes were acquired without any evident cause when CAPD was performed at home. Nine episodes were suspected to be the result of bacterial leakage through the intestinal wall. Six of them occurred in patients receiving corticosteroids. During the study period an increasing number of episodes of peritonitis were caused by organisms with multiple resistance to antibiotics. Thus, the microbiological spectrum in CAPD-related peritonitis must constantly be surveyed so that proper measures, e.g. regarding the choice of antibiotics used, can be taken when a change is observed.