Patient and technique survival on peritoneal dialysis in patients with failed renal allograft: a case-control study.

Failed renal allograft is becoming one of the most frequent causes of dialysis initiation in countries with developed transplant programs. The majority of patients initiate hemodialysis (HD) as their next renal replacement modality and concerns about the success of peritoneal dialysis (PD) in this patient population has been expressed. We evaluated patient and technique outcome in a cohort of 494 patients in the United States who initiated PD after a failed renal allograft in the years 2000-2003, and compared the outcomes to those of two case-matched groups: patients new to dialysis or patients transferred from HD who started PD during the same period. Patients starting PD after a failed allograft had patient survival and technique survival similar to case-matched controls. Transplantation was lower in patients with failed allograft than controls. The high success of PD in patients with failed allograft suggests that it is beneficial to utilize this modality more frequently in this patient group than current practice.