A survey of 1,621 U.S. dialysis patients shows that although peritoneal dialysis (PD) had been discussed with 61% of those individuals, only 10.9% of the informed patients chose this dialysis method.
The proportion of patients in this Comprehensive Dialysis Study cohort who reported being involved in the PD discussions was higher than seen in earlier studies, but the proportion of those who actually began such treatment remained small. Nancy G. Kutner, PhD, and colleagues noted that greater PD selection could help contain kidney-disease treatment costs and help ensure that patients are using the most appropriate form of renal-replacement therapy for their circumstances, according to a report published online in Archives of Internal Medicine).
In the same journal, Rajnish Mehrotra, MD, and collaborators reported that only 7% of U.S. dialysis patients were treated with PD in 2007. They also found that patients who began treatment with HD or PD in 2002-2004—the most recent cohort studied–had similar outcomes.
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