Peritoneal Dialysis

The peritoneum can be considered the perfect membrane for dialytic procedures. In spite of this, peritoneal dialysis has been used rarely for the treatment of acute renal failure. On the other hand, the treatment of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis has been increasing in end stage renal disease. Ten to 15 % of end stage renal failure patients have been performed chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis in Turkey. Both physiologic and clinical characteristics of peritoneal dialysis are different from the other dialytic modalities. Especially peritoneal dialysis may be treatment of choice in acute renal failure patients who has hemodinamically instable. A lot of studies support that peritoneal dialysis quite effective as other dialytic therapies in acute renal failure. Clinical experience confirms that peritoneal dialysis is a safe, effective and inexpensive treatment modality of acute renal failure. In this report, indications, physiologic principles and the usage of peritoneal dialysis in the intensive care units are summarised.