Complications of peritoneal dialysis (PD)

Peritoneal dialysis is one of the renal replacement therapies. Peritoneal dialysis helps to remove waste products found in blood secondary to renal or kidney failure. It is cheap and easy to perform than that of hemo-dialysis. But there are several complications are found with peritoneal dialysis. Following are some of complications of peritoneal dialysis

1. peritonitis
2. exit site infection
3. peri catheter leak
4. outflow failure
5. membrane function failure

Peritonitis due to peritoneal dialysis is one of the major complications of peritoneal dialysis. Usually it is due to bacteria so an antibiotic is required to treat it. The risk for such an infection is nowadays low (on average one episode every 3-5 years) due to improvements in the design of the products used. Also, following the instructions about how to exchange the fluids will further reduce the risk. Usually, a patient with peritonitis has fever, abdominal pain and a cloudy appearance of drained dialysis fluid.

Another main complication of peritoneal dialysis is the exit site infection. It is also due to bacterial infection. Changing clothes daily and hand washing prior to handling the catheter set will help to reduce the incidence of exit site infection.