Peritoneal dialysis in children with end-stage renal disease

Peritoneal dialysis is the preferred chronic dialysis modality for most children owing to its almost universal applicability and superior compatibility with lifestyle over other modalities. Although technological advances and increasing clinical experience have impacted favorably on patient and technique survival, clinical research in pediatric peritoneal dialysis has been hampered by the low incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the pediatric population. To overcome this limitation, several international registries have emerged in the past few years to complement other long-standing registries, which together have provided useful information regarding technique-specific complications and comorbidities associated with ESRD in children undergoing chronic peritoneal dialysis. In this Review, we summarize the most relevant findings from these studies, highlighting the substantial variation in patient conditions, peritoneal dialysis practices and management of comorbidities encountered in different parts of the world.