Early peritonitis is an independent risk factor for mortality in elderly peritoneal dialysis patients.

BACKGROUND/AIMS The impact of early peritonitis on the outcome of elderly peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients has not been studied. We aimed to research the influence of early peritonitis on patient outcomes in elderly PD patients. METHODS This study involved elderly PD patients (age ≥65) who underwent PD between Jan 1, 2004 and Jul 31, 2013. Patient characteristics were collected in our database. Early peritonitis was defined as peritonitis within 6 months after the initiation of PD. Patient survival and technique were compared among the non-peritonitis, early peritonitis and late peritonitis groups using Cox regression analysis. RESULTS There were 155 subjects involved in this study. The patients were divided among a non-peritonitis group (n=78), early peritonitis group (n=32) and late peritonitis group (n=45). The organisms causing first peritonitis in the two groups did not differ significantly. After adjustment for age, diabetes, serum albumin and residual renal function, multivariable Cox regression model revealed that compared with the early peritonitis group, both the non-peritonitis group (HR 0.57, RI 0.32-0.99, p=0.046) and the late peritonitis group (HR 0.37, RI 0.16-0.75, p=0.004) exhibited a lower patient mortality rate. CONCLUSIONS Early peritonitis is an independent risk factor for mortality in elderly peritoneal dialysis patients.