Different aspects of peritoneal damage: fibrosis and sclerosis.

Peritoneal sclerosis is very common in peritoneal dialysis patients. It can vary from the mild, clinically silent simple sclerosis always present after years of peritoneal dialysis, to rare but dramatic and often fatal cases of encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis. Their frequency, pathology, animal models, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, therapy, and prevention are reviewed. Peritoneal fibrosis and sclerosis is a complex phenomenon. At one end of the spectrum we have simple sclerosis: the mild, clinically silent sclerosis always present after years of peritoneal dialysis. At the other end, we have encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis, which is rare but dramatic and fatal.