Abstract
Hemodialysis (HD) has been most commonly used for the treatment of chronic renal failure. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) has several problems for long-term use. Two patients, 70-year-old male and 70-year-old female, treated with intermittent PD, three times a week were presented in this paper. For each cycle 2 litters of dialysate solution were introduced using an automatic exchanger. Total infusion volume was 15 liters for about 8 hours a day. The peritoneal cannula was left in the peritoneal cavity after each dialysis,
The duration of PD was 9 and 11 months for these two cases respectively. In the first case, frequent retention of ascites was observed 4 months after starting PD. Therefore, intravenous reinfusion of the fluid, after condensing the fluid by a hollow fiber dialyzer, was performed with antibiotics and anticoagulant agents, and consequently the serum hypoproteinemia did not develop. As it can be fatal or result in loss of peritoneal membrane for further dialysis if there is any chance for peritonitis, PD was done every day along with infusion of antibiotics and anticoagulant agents in the abdominal cavity in such a case.
Although continuous PD was designed in the beginning in order to increase effectiveness of the dialysis, peritoneal infection occurred frequently. Therefore, the patient was returned to intermittent PD because of abdominal fullness, anorexia or a sense of abdominal distension.
Thus, intermittent PD is a very useful method for long-term dialysis of chronic renal failure, and has much less load to the cardiovascular system and the blood pressure. The patient can be freely mobile with the application of the peritoneal cannula. In addition, it is necessary to check many factors including diet, water balance, infection and effectiveness of dialysis.
