Survival of CAPD patients in a center using three two-liter exchanges as standard regime

Our objectives were to study long-term patient survival and dialysis adequacy of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients treated with a standard regime of three 2-L daily exchanges. It was a retrospective analysis of patient survival and cross-sectional analysis of adequacy of dialysis. The setting was a dialysis unit in a tertiary referral center of a teaching hospital. All patients (n = 507) accepted into the CAPD program from 1983 to June 1994, were analyzed for survival. Adequacy of dialysis was analyzed in all existing patients in 1993 to 1994. The overall patient survival was 93%, 71%, and 57% at one, three, and five years, respectively. The three-year survival rate was 40% for diabetics and 78% for nondiabetics. It was 86%, 85%, 64%, and 43% for patients aged < 35, 35-50, 50-65, and over 65 years, respectively. The mean weekly KT/V of 201 existing CAPD patients was 1.76, and creatinine clearance was 57 L/week/1.73 m2. KT/V by dialysis was only 1.57. The age- and disease-adjusted survival in our center was comparable to centers that used standard four 2-L exchange regimes, despite a substantially lower mean KT/V and creatinine clearance (CrCl).