Peritoneal dialysis in elderly patients: Clinical experience

Abstract

Many older patients do not cope well with hemodialysis, yet the proportion of older patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) is considerably lower than for younger patients. This is despite the fact that clinical outcome studies show that older patients cope as well as, if not better than, younger patients on PD. Furthermore, the North Thames Dialysis Study, a prospective study of patients ≥70 years old, has shown that survival, hospitalization, and quality of life were identical for patients on hemodialysis and patients on PD. Copyright © 2005 International Society for Peritoneal Dialysis Printed in Canada. All rights reserved.