The position of the peritoneal dialysis catheter is not essential for a correct performance

Abstract

The success of chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a well-functioning catheter. It is recommended to place the tip of PD access in the intraabdominal deep pelvic area. The authors' objectives were to prove if the PD device should be necessarily located in the pelvic area to function properly, and if the X-ray exploration should be compulsory when blinded implantation technique is used. 42 stable patients on PD were included in the study, infusion and drainage times were recorded and an abdominal X-ray was performed at the same time. Catheter was correctly located in 25 (59.5%) cases and in 17 (40.5%) it was malpositioned. We observed that there were no differences in infusion times, but in the first group drainage was faster than in the second although not significant: infusion 10.5 vs. 10.6 minutes and drainage 14.7 vs. 15.8 minutes. These clinical observations support the fact that catheters' function would not necessarily depend on its intraabdominal position and that a radiological exploration should not be mandatory.