Clinical analysis of chronic peritoneal dialysis related peritonitis in children.

In most countries, chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the preferred dialysis mode for children and adolescents below the age of 15 years with end-stage renal disease. PD-related peritonitis is a serious complication that has a great impact on uremic patients'outcome. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of a total of 22 uremic children who underwent chronic peritoneal dialysis. The total peritonitis rate in our study was one episode every 23.7 patient-months, and there was no significant difference in the incidence of peritonitis between children with automated peritoneal dialysis and those with continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (p=0.219). Staphylococcus aureus was the most common causative organism, accounting for 13.3% of the episodes of peritonitis. The combination therapy of vancomycin plus ceftazidime is effective for common pathogens in peritonitis. Rare microorganisms, e. g., fungus and mycobacterium, should be taken into consideration when the response to initial treatment is poor. Early diagnosis and treatment is important to prevent sequelae and mortality.