French peritoneal dialysis registry (RDPLF): outline and main results.

The Registre de Dialyse Péritonéale de Langue Française (RDPLF Registry) is a non-profit association that has been set up to assist physicians and nurses in evaluating their practical experience and results regarding peritoneal dialysis (PD). Five French-speaking and two Spanish-speaking countries have participated in this initiative (which includes 21 000 patients). In France, 82% of all PD patients are included in the registry and the main results for the period from 1995 to January 2006 form the basis of this report: of 11 744 incident patients with a median age of 71 years, 21.5% were over 80 years of age and 56% were not able to perform PD treatment at home without assistance. Eighty-six percent of the latter group received external assistance from a private nurse and 14% were aided by their family. The overall average rate of peritonitis was one episode every 29 months. The probability of being peritonitis-free appeared to be better for patients on automated PD (59.4% at 2 year) than for those on continuous ambulatory PD (55.3%), but this finding requires further validation. The average waiting time before transplantation was about 2 years. In patients who had undergone transplantation, the peritonitis rate was one episode per 42 months before transplantation compared to one episode per 29 months for patients who had not received a transplant. Eighty-three percent of patients had a hemoglobin level greater than 11 g%. Catheter survival was 92% at 2 years post-insertion and 85% at 5 years, with 94% being implanted by experienced surgeons. In conclusion, the RDPLF results demonstrate that PD may be successfully prescribed for older patients who receive assistance either from their family or from a nurse. Further, a larger number of younger patients should also be prescribed this technique in France. Patients eligible for transplantation and on short-term PD have the lowest risk of developing peritonitis; PD before transplantation may help prolong residual renal function, and initial treatment by PD may also help to preserve vascular access for the future.

[Monitoring of the peritoneal permeability in peritoneal dialysis]. / Surveillance de la perméabilité du péritoine en dialyse péritonéale.

Monitoring peritoneal permeability is indispensable to adjust the dialysis procedure to the characteristics of each individual patient and to detect and prevent the complications of peritoneal dialysis. Several monitoring techniques can be used, the simplest one being the most inaccurate. The authors consider that in routine practice the first alterations can be detected merely by measuring ultrafiltration. The next step is a single glucose assay after a 4-hour long contact. Evaluating the speed of diffusion of glucose and urea by means of four assays in two hours is an excellent compromise: the equilibration curves thus obtained can be summarized as the time required for the percentage of glucose absorption to be identical with the percentage of dialysate saturation in urea (APEX time).