Symptom burden can be explained to a limited extent by demographic and clinical variables and not by dialysis characteristics. Addition of symptom burden to the other variables makes it possible to explain one-third of perceived QL. This underlines the importance of symptom reduction in order to improve patient's QL.

Objective To assess employment status in new end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients at the start of dialysis and after 1 year, and to determine whether demographic and clinical variables and physical and psychosocial functioning at the start of dialysis are risk factors for loss of employment after 1 year of dialysis. Design Prospective follow-up study in which 38 of 48 Dutch dialysis centers participate. Patients 659 patients who had started on dialysis and who were between 18 and 65 years old were included. Patients were re-examined after 12 months. Main Outcome Measures Demographic data, physical and psychosocial functioning with the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), and data on employment status were obtained using questionnaires. Nephrologists provided the clinical data. Results At the start of dialysis, 35% of patients were employed, in contrast to 61% of the general Dutch population. Within 1 year, the proportion of employed patients decreased from 31% to 25% of hemodialysis patients, and from 48% to 40% of peritoneal dialysis patients. In patients who were working at the start of dialysis, independent risk factors for loss of work within 1 year were impaired physical and psychosocial functioning [odds ratio physical: 3.4, 95% confidence interval (%CI), 1.0 – 11.2; odds ratio psychosocial: 4.2, 95% CI, 1.2 – 14.2]. Conclusions As the percentage of employed patients at the start of dialysis is about half the expected percent-age, loss of work is an important issue in both predialysis and dialysis patients. Improvements in physical and psychosocial functioning are potentially preventive of loss of work in patients who are employed when they start dialysis.

Ototoxicity affects the higher frequencies first and extends to the lower frequencies during continuation of the ototoxic treatment. Peritonitis due to continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) regularly demands ototoxic antibiotic treatment, e.g. with gentamicin and vancomycin. In this study ultra-high frequency audiometry (10–20 kHz), ‘normal’ audiometry (0.125–8 kHz) and registration of blood concentrations of the antibiotics were used to assess ototoxic hearing loss during treatment of CAPD patients with peritonitis.

To elucidate the importance of possible trapping of macromolecules in peritoneal tissue on the calculation of peritoneal lymphatic drainage, we compared the transport of inulin administered i.v. and i.p. in nine continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients on two separate days. In the intraperitoneal study inulin (5 g) was added to the dialysate and in the intravenous study inulin (5 g) was given i.v. 3 h before the test. No differences were found in the mass transfer area coefficients (MTC) of urea, creatinine, and glucose between the two tests. The MTC after inulin i.p. was 3.2 ± 0.7 mLlmin (mean ± SD) and after inulin i.v. 1.8 ± 0.5 (p < 10-5). As the difference in transport kinetics between i.v. and i.p. administration is likely to be caused by lymphatic absorption, a mean lymphatic flow of 1.4 mLlmin could be calculated. This value corresponds to the data obtained with macromolecules. Our results therefore favor the hypothesis that no local accumulation of macromolecules in the peritoneal tissues takes place and that their disappearance from the peritoneal cavity represents lymphatic absorption.