Fungal peritonitis in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis.

Fungal peritonitis represents one of the most serious complications in patients on peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). The therapy often consists of peritoneal catheter extraction and patient recruitment to hemodialysis. For some of the patients the peritoneal dialysis is the only way of dialysis, due to inability to perform a permanent vascular access. In this study we present 13 patients with fungal peritonitis on CAPD in the last five years. Three patients (all of them diabetics on insulin therapy, and hypoalbuminemic) died in the course of fungal peritonitis or immediately after. Seven patients were transferred to hemodialysis, and five continued on CAPD, two of them with reimplanted peritoneal catheter. Low incidence (2.6%) of fungal peritonitis in our patients on CAPD could be attributed to the strict intrahospital treatment of every bacterial peritonitis episode and no preventive antibiotic usage.