Recent US registry data and a European multicenter study described increased risk of peritonitis in young children on peritoneal dialysis (PD). No underlying age-specific risk factors could be defined in these reports. Therefore, we analyzed risk factors for peritonitis in children treated by PD as primary renal replacement therapy at the Kinderdialyse, Vienna, and particularly searched for age-specific aspects. Thirty children (15 boys, mean age 4.6 years) received PD [21 automated peritoneal dialysis (APD), nine continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD)] for 13 months (3-49 months). During the total observation period of 395 dialysis months, 27 peritonitis episodes were diagnosed (1:14.6 months or 0.82/patient per year). Of our population, 43% remained peritonitis free; seven patients suffered from more than one peritonitis episode. Ten potential risk factors [age, gender, PD modality, duration of PD, exit-site status, urine volume, residual glomerular filtration rate (GFR), Kt/V, normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR), albumin] and four indices of peritonitis outcome (peritonitis incidence, peritonitis burden, risk of suffering more than one episode of peritonitis and chance of staying free from peritonitis) were analyzed. Our study identified six risk factors in univariate analysis, namely age, APD treatment, exit-site infections, low urinary volume, low residual GFR and low nPCR, which were significantly correlated with two or more of the outcome indices. Multivariate analysis identified exit-site infection and residual urine volume as strong independent predictors. In summary, our study identified several age-dependent and age-independent risk factors for peritonitis in pediatric PD. These data demonstrate that the risk for peritonitis in small children is not pre-determined but might be open to therapeutic interventions, such as optimizing exit-site care, dialysis prescription and nutrition management.
