Background: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients with impaired hand-eye function require helper assistance. Our centre developed a connection device that assists patients with impaired hand-eye function to perform PD exchange themselves, but the clinical outcomes in these patients have not been investigated.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients who had device-assisted continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) during 2007-2016 and compared their clinical outcomes with age- and sex-matched patients receiving helper-assisted CAPD.
Results: One hundred seventy-two patients (86 each in the device- and helper-assisted CAPD groups) were followed for 29.9 (19.4-43.3) months. The device- and helper-assisted groups had comparable peritonitis rates (0.489 and 0.504 episode per patient-year, respectively, p = 0.814), with no difference in the distribution of causative organisms and the organism-specific peritonitis rates. The device-assisted group showed similar peritonitis-free survival compared with the helper-assisted group (2.58 (1.85-3.31) vs. 1.78 (0.68-2.88) years, p = 0.363) and time-to-PD discontinuation (6.27 (3.65-8.90) vs. 4.35 (3.48-5.22) years, p = 0.677). The median patient survival was similar between the two groups (3.89 (2.22-5.55) vs. 3.81 (3.27-4.36) years in the device- and helper-assisted groups, respectively, p = 0.505).
Conclusion: Device-assisted CAPD confers comparable outcomes as helper-assisted CAPD and is a viable option in PD patients with impaired hand-eye function.
Keywords: PD discontinuation; assisted peritoneal dialysis; connection device; device-assisted; helper-assisted; peritonitis rate.