Remote monitoring of peritoneal dialysis in special locations

Abstract

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) as a therapy with all its advantages has not grown as would have been expected except in certain pockets, notably in Asia. In our opinion, from patient and their family interviews, a perception among prospective PD patients of inaccessibility to the referral PD Unit (RPU), usually for patients from rural areas in far flung places, inaccessible due to difficult terrain or long distances, play a strong role against the choice of PD as their modality choice for end-stage renal disease. We decided to address this issue by adopting novel initiatives such as easy access to the RPU through usage of internet and mobile phones from the patient homes especially in addressing the more clinically relevant infectious complications such as peritonitis and exit site infections with immediate treatment management responses from the RPU. In addition, we found that inherently the rural PD patients had several advantages over their urban counterparts and also over their hemodialysis (HD) counterparts in many socioeconomic, emotional support and nutritional parameters. We enhanced these advantages with an intensive home visit program. This two pronged approach has paid dividends in that our rural PD patients do as well, if not better than the urban PD and the HD patients, contrary to prevailing international experience.