Patient and technique survival among an urban population of peritoneal dialysis patients: an 8-year experience.

Estimates of patient and technique survival are given for 146 peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients who underwent dialysis between January 1, 1981 through December 31, 1989. In all, 33 patients died and 44 patients changed treatment. Patient survival was 92% at 1 year, 80% at 2 years, and 55% at 4 years, while technique survival was 85% at 1 year, 74% at 2 years, and 47% at 4 years. Cox's proportional hazards regression model was used to assess the effects of sex, age, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD), education, and training time on both patient and technique survival. Both patient age (P = 0.001) and CVD (P = 0.03) had a significant impact on patient survival. On the average, for every 10 years' increase in age, the risk of death increased by a factor of 1.71. Patients with CVD had a risk of death 2.57 times higher than the risk of death among patients without CVD. With respect to technique or method survival, black patients had a risk of changing treatment 2.24 times higher than that for white patients. Our patient and technique survivals are similar to that reported in the national CAPD registry over a comparable period (1981 to 1988).