Peritoneal dialysis in elderly end-stage renal disease patients

This study was designed to investigate the outcome of all elderly patients older than 65 who started peritoneal dialysis (PD) between January 1989 and December 1992. One hundred and twenty end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients commenced PD at our institution between January 1989 and December 1992. All the patients who started, completed PD training, and remained on PD for more than one month were included in the study. Of these, 30 patients were elderly (more than 65 years old) with a mean age of 72 years (range 66-81 years). The total number of patient-months observed was 2035, of which the elderly represented 454 patient-months. Twenty-five percent (30 of 120 patients) were elderly. The causes of ESRD were diabetes mellitus in 6 patients (20%), glomerulonephritis in 6 (20%), atheroembolic disease in 4 (13.3%), hypertension in 2 (6.7%), and unknown etiology in 10 (33.3%) patients. Sixteen patients performed continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and 14 patients continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis (CCPD). Five patients required private home nurses for multiple medical problems and for PD. Mean duration of peritoneal dialysis per patient was 15 months. Four patients were transferred to incenter hemodialysis, one each because of failure to thrive, insurance, catheter malfunction, and fungal peritonitis. One patient recovered renal function after 22 months of PD. Twenty-one episodes of peritonitis occurred over 454 patient-months (1 episode/22 patient-months). In conclusion, the elderly patients on PD have a favorable outcome even with multiple comorbid conditions.