Hypertension in dialysis patients: does CAPD provide an advantage?

We considered the hypothesis that CAPD is a superior treatment to HD in patients with dialysis-refractory hypertension. We compared 12 HD patients to 22 CAPD patients entered to our program over a one year period. All had been treated for hypertension before dialysis. We found that systolic blood pressure decreased in CAPD patients compared to HD patients, even though medications were more commonly reduced in CAPD patients compared to HD patients. Ten CAPD patients required no medications after one year's treatment. These preliminary data in this small pilot study support the notion that CAPD is superior to HD in blood pressure management of hypertensive patients. A large, multicenter study may be warranted to determine if CAPD favorably influences the risk of cardiovascular complications in dialysis patients compared to HD.