Infection of the abdominal cavity and chronic peritoneal dialysis

Abstract

Peritoneal dialyses have been performed in 1072 instances by the manual infusion technique in 16 patients with chronic renal failure, during a period of 2 years. Among the intraabdominal bacterial cultures done before each dialysis, 79 were positive, and peritonitis developed in 7 cases. As related to the total number of dialyses, these figures represent 7.37 and 0.65 per cent, respectively. Local intraabdominal applications has been found to reduce the hazard of peritonitis. Increased frequency of dialyses and combined antibiotic therapy proved curative to peritonitis. The results of the bacterial cultures indicate that in case of intraabdominal infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, acetate-containing dialysing fluids should be given preference.