MO694: Analysis of Mechanical Complications in Urgent-Start Peritoneal Dialysis

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIMS Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is an excellent, but underutilized dialysis technique. Thus, its implementation might depend on the chance to offer this modality of treatment to late referral patients. This approach has been recently named ‘urgent-start peritoneal dialysis’ (UPD). The major barrier to this practice is represented by the belief that peritoneal exchanges can be safely started at least 2 weeks after catheter insertion, due to the concern of early mechanical complications. The study investigated the efficacy and safety of an UPD approach in our PD program. METHOD Between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2019 all prevalent patients needing UPD at our institution were included in the study. During this period, 242 peritoneal catheters were inserted in 222 patients (Table 1). One hundred forty-eight catheters were positioned semi-surgically, while 94 were inserted surgically. In all patients, an anti-leakage/dislocation suture was made. PD was started within 24 h from catheter placement and peritoneal exchange scheme characterized by progressively increasing volume was used; early and late mechanical complications were also analysed. Finally, all the causes of PD technique and catheter failure were reported. Table 1. Clinical characteristics of 222 PD patients RESULTS The early incidence of leakages, catheter dislocations, omental wrappings, bleeding, peritonitis and exit-site infections was 11/242 (4.5%), 5/242 (2%), 3/242 (1.2%), 2/242 (0.8%), 6/242 (2.5%) and 4/242 (1.6%), respectively (Table 2). No bowel perforations were observed. The long-term leakage rate and catheter dislocation were 0.016 and 0.019 episodes/patient-year, respectively (Table 3). The survival of the catheter at 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months was 93.6, 91.2, 84.8, 77.4, 65.5 and 59.3%, respectively (Fig. 1). The technique survival at 3, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months was 97.2, 94.9, 87.6, 78.9, 66.6 and 60.0%, respectively (Fig. 2). The main cause of PD dropout was represented by infectious complications (nearly 40%) and mechanical complications (17.5%) leading to catheter failure (Fig. 3). No significant difference in the first catheter survival among the semi-surgical and the surgical arm was observed (HR 0.88 [CI 0.54–1.45], P = 0.62 [Fig. 4]). FIGURE 1: Probability of catheter survival. No. = number and Cat = catheters. FIGURE 2: Probability of technique survival in patients enrolled in urgent-start peritoneal dialysis program. No = number and pt = pa