Peritoneal dialysis in India: Current status and challenges

With its ambulatory nature and freedom from complicated and expensive technology, chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD) is the ideal renal replacement therapy for resource-poor India. Despite being available for more than 15 years, PD has been limited in its growth because of economic factors, inadequate government policies, nephrologist bias, and lack of adequate pre-dialysis care. The number of patients initiated on therapy has increased in recent years, but the number of early dropouts remains high. Single-center studies suggest that contributors to poor outcome include gram-negative peritonitis, malnutrition, and failure to increase the dialysis dose as residual renal function declines. Development of a national PD registry and increased educational activities to position PD as part of integrated therapy for end-stage kidney disease would improve utilization of the PD modality.