The Permanent Peritoneal Catheter

Abstract

To the Editor.— Since the introduction of the permanent peritoneal catheter by Tenckhoff and Schechter, 1 chronic peritoneal dialysis has become an effective means of maintaining patients with renal failure, and this is well shown in the recent article by Rae and Pandray (225:937, 1973). Our experience is similar, and our first patient has now been receiving peritoneal dialysis for almost four years. However, the main handicap of maintenance peritoneal dialysis, as the above authors have said, is that these patients never... be rehabilitated. We would like to point out that this difficulty has now been overcome with the introduction of an automatic peritoneal dialysis cycler designed by Lasker et al. 2 Using this cycler, dialysis can be performed during sleep, which enables complete rehabilitation. We already have three men, working full time, who have been undergoing home peritoneal dialysis, with the above cycler, for periods of five, three,