9 PATIENTS TREATED FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS WITH CONTINUOUS AMBULATORY PERITONEAL-DIALYSIS

We have retrospectively examined the clinical outcomes of the 9 patien ts who survived for more than 10 years in our continuous ambulatory pe ritoneal dialysis (CAPD) program. Six were men and 3 women aged 50.8 /- (SD) 11.5 years. Three had been previously treated by hemodialysis. None of them had diabetes or neoplasms, 1 had liver cirrhosis, 3 had ischemic cardiopathy, 1 had peripheral artery disease, and all were hy pertensive. The hospitalization rate ranged from 0 to 4.5 days/patient /year, the peritonitis rate was one episode every 57 months. Six patie nts had no peritonitis during the first 10 years of treatment. Exit-si te episodes were one every 46.7 patient months. Six peritoneal cathete rs were removed from 4 patients. KT/V and peritoneal permeability, ass essed by the peritoneal equilibration test, were within the normal ran ge in the majority of the patients, Five patients died between the 121 st and the 149th month, and 4 are still alive, Three of them are worki ng. These results show that CAPD can be effective, peritoneal catheter s can survive, and some patients can be free from peritonitis episodes for more than 10 years, After the 10-year on CAPD, the survival is po or, and the morbidity is high.