Over a 14 year period, 56 of 415 CAPD patients (34 male, 22 female), aged 42.7 +/- 11 years, underwent renal transplantation (TR). A cadaver kidney was used in 53 patients (kidney-pancreas in 2), and a human leucocyte antibody (HLA) identical related donor organ was used in 3. Underlying renal diseases were chronic glomerulonephritis in 30 patients, diabetic nephropathy in 10, interstitial nephropathy in 5, vascular in 4, polycystic kidney in 3, and undetermined in 4. Mean duration of CAPD prior to TR was 13 months (2-56 months). A three-week peritonitis episode-free interval was requested prior to TR. At year 1, actuarial patient and graft survival (96% and 86%, respectively), plasma creatinine, and number of rejection episodes were not different from those recorded in patients treated with hemodialysis (HD) prior to TR. At TR, pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) was elevated (average 21.1 +/- 7.4 mm Hg), > or = 25 mm Hg and > or = 30 mm Hg in 36% and 14.6% of CAPD patients, respectively. Post-TR, HD was performed in 4 patients; no peritoneal infection occurred. Postoperative sonography disclosed ascitis in 12.7% of CAPD patients. The PD catheter was removed two months post-TR. Hemodynamic findings at TR suggest a frequently underestimated overhydration in CAPD patients, which should be detected and treated in order to reduce acute cardiovascular complications at TR.