Mechanical complications in chronic peritoneal dialysis

Background: A significant number of complications and catheter failures in CAPD are due to mechanical problems. Methods: We reviewed 105 consecutive p eritoneal dialysis catheters, generally implanted by blind insertion techni que, in 80 patients over an 11-year period. 137 mechanical problems were co llected and classified according to their etiologies into the following: th ose related to the insertion procedure (n = 21; 15.3%), those related to th e presence of dialysate in peritoneum (n = 33; 24%), catheter-related malfu nction (n = 28; 20.4%), secondaries to abdominal events (n = 3; 0.2%), cath eter accidents (n = 37; 26.2%) and others (n = 15; 11%). Results: Removal o f the catheter was performed in 86 of 105 catheters: mechanical complicatio ns accounted for 19 of them (21.8%) and 9 patients were definitively transf erred to hemodialysis due to this problem. The most frequent complications were catheter accidents, although only a few of them required catheter remo val. Conclusion: The majority of the catheter removals were due to catheter displacement (31.5%), this problem being more frequent in straight than in Swan Neck catheters.