CHANGES IN WATER TRANSPORT ACROSS THE PERITONEUM DURING TREATMENT WITH CONTINUOUS AMBULATORY PERITONEAL DIALYSIS IN SELECTED PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT PERITONITIS

¤ Background: The natural course of longitudinal changes in peritoneal permeability and membrane area has been studied mostly by performing single-dwell stud-ies in selected patients during treatment with peritoneal dialysis. ¤ Purpose: To evaluate the permeability characteristics of the peritoneal membrane by measuring drained ultra-filtration volume relative to initial glucose concentration in dialysis fluid from the start to the end of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) treatment in a se-lected cohort of patients with and without peritonitis. ¤ Design: A retrospective analysis of a group of patients whose peritoneal function was prospectively followed by recording drained ultrafiltration volume and glucose con-centration in dialysis fluid for each dwell time, every day, during the time in CAPD treatment. Mean values from a 1-month period starting after the first 3 weeks of CAPD treatment were compared with the mean values from the last month of treatment. Approximately 11 500 exchanges were analyzed. Evaluations were done separately for short (day) and long (night) dwell times