INFECTION AND CAPD IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS

In spite of the recent advances peritonitis and catheter related infections are still the most common and serious complications of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). The study included 54 children who underwent CAPD at Ankara Uniiversity Faculty of Medicine, Deparment of Pediatric Nephrology, between July 1989 and January 1997. Over a period of 676 patient months observation peritonitis occurred 74% of the patients and exit site infections were observed 33% and tunnel infections were observed 24% of the study group, respectively. During the study period three different connecting system were used. Peritonitis rate was lower in the patients with disconnecting system ( Y set system ) when compared to the spike and ultra system : 1.05 episode /year, 2.9 episode/ year and 3.1 episode/ year. Similarly, the rates of exit site and tunnel infections were found lower in the patients who are using disconnecting systems than the other two systems. We conclude that disconnecting systems decrease the rate of infectious complications in CAPD patients, but do not solve the problem completely.