survival of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis catheters: an evaluation of surgical and non-surgical factors (single center study)

peritoneal dialysis is an established form of renal replacement therapy used in many patients with end-stage renal disease. the key to a successful chronic peritoneal dialysis is a permanent and safe access to the peritoneal cavity. this study was conducted in order to evaluate the catheter survival and its related factors in imam khomeini hospital. a total of 80 catheters were inserted into 69 patients (52 men and 28 women) with end-stage chronic renal failure during a period of 84 months. retrospectively the correlation between catheter survival (overall and event free) with demographic factors (sex and age), surgical factors (surgeons and surgical methods), nephrologic factors (the causes of peritoneal dialysis selection and the history of hemodialysis) and peritonitis factors (the history and number of peritonitis) has been evaluated. the mean age of the patients was 48.35 years (16 to 79 years). the overall survival of catheters or the probability of having a functioning catheter after one, two and three years was 53%, 41%, 22%, respectively. the event free survival of the catheter or the probability of having a functioning catheter without any problems after one year was 14%. it has been found out that among all factors in this study only history of hemodialysis had statistically significant effect on the overall survival of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis catheter (p = 0.04). it seems that the overall survival of catheters is better when capd is started before any other attempts for hemodialysis.