Let us listen to patients: Underutilization of peritoneal dialysis from patients’ perspectives

Abstract

Despite the fact that many of the medical outcome data of peritoneal dialysis (PD) have been improving over the past few years, PD remains an underutilized modality in many countries worldwide. Most nephrologists in those countries report a high rate of patients refusal. We conducted this survey-based study to determine the obstacles behind underutilization of PD in Saudi Arabia from patients’ perspectives and to understand the reasons for their refusal. Nine-hundred and twenty hemodialysis (HD) patients, who had never been on PD before, participated in this study. Responses obtained from patients indicate that their refusal of PD could be because they had not received proper counseling and education about PD from their treating nephrologists throughout the course of their disease.