Long-Term Complication Rates and Survival of Peritoneal Dialysis Catheters: The Role of Percutaneous Versus Surgical Placement

Considerable controversy currently exists in the literature concerning the mode of catheter placement and its impact on the technical success of peritoneal dialysis (PD). We decided to compare the impact of the surgical versus the percutaneous insertion technique on peritoneal dialysis catheter (PDCs) complications and survival. Our study population comprised 152 patients in whom 170 PDCs were inserted between January 1990 and December 2007 at the main PD unit on the island of Crete. Eighty four catheters were surgically placed (S group) and 86 were placed percutaneously by nephrologists (N group). The total experience accumulated was 4997 patient‐months. The overall complications did not differ between the two groups. Only early leakage was more frequent in N group than S group (10.3 versus 1.9 episodes per 1000 patient‐months; p