Use of home automated intermittent peritoneal dialysis in the treatment of end stage renal failure.

We report our retrospective analysis of 16 uraemic patients who were treated with home automated intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD) from 1988 to 1993. Six patients were diabetic. The mean age was 58.5 years. The reasons for home automated IPD were: old age, poor eyesight, low intelligence or poor dexterity, family or patient request and old stroke. It took an average of 8.8 sessions to train the helper. The mean frequency of the home IPD was once every 5.8 days with a mean volume of 48 litres of dialysate used during each dialysis. There were 3 peritonitis episodes making the peritonitis rate once every 93 patient months. Four patients were still on home IPD and two were transplanted. Ten patients died of stroke, myocardial infarction, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive lung disease or suicide. A low plasma albumin is the only significant parameter in the early mortality group. Such high mortality can be accounted for by the fact that patients were older and forty per cent were diabetic. We conclude that home automated IPD can be an alternative for some patients in whom other modes of dialysis are difficult.