Doubts on the Long-Term Survival of Peritoneal Dialysis Patients Are No Longer a Medical Barrier to Home Dialysis

Abstract

Remarkable differences in the utilization of peritoneal dialysis (PD) versus other forms of renal replacement therapy (RRT) exist between different continents, countries and even different regions in a given country. Since many years a number of medical and nonmedical barriers against home dialysis, notably PD have been recognized. One of the reasons for the low utilization of home (peritoneal) dialysis is the incomplete presentation of treatment options to the patient with ESRD. This review updates some recent data on the long-term survival of PD patients in comparison with long-term hemodialysis. Doubts on the long-term survival results on PD are still one of the major medical systematic barriers preventing the expansion of PD for the treatment of ESRD. These recent survival results show that even over a long follow-up time, PD, at least in patients who are starting RRT in a planned way, has the same survival as patients starting on chronic hemodialysis.