Advantages of Peritoneal Dialysis for End Stage Kidney Disease

Peritoneal dialysis is one of the major dialysis treatment for end stage kidney disease patients and the others being hemodialysis and colon dialysis. Here we will mainly talk about the advantages of peritoneal dialysis and who are more suitable to have peritoneal dialysis than hemodialysis.

Peritoneal dialysis is much simpler and has wider application than hemodialysis. No special machine or equipment is needed and it can be done in nearly all the hospitals and it can be done even at the patient’s home.

It is very convenient to operate and it does not affect the patient’s normal daily life and work.

In peritoneal dialysis, patients need not to have anticoagulants in the whole body and the heparin in the patient’s abdominal cavity is small amount and it is not easy to be absorbed, therefore peritoneal does not increase the risk of hemorrhage as that in hemodialysis. It is more suitable than hemodialysis for those that have hemorrhage tendency.

Peritoneal dialysis is more stable than hemodialysis. We know that hemodialysis can cause a series of side effects such as sharp decline of blood volume, low blood pressure, dialysis disequilibrium syndrome. These side effects and complications of hemodialysis can be avoided in peritoneal dialysis, therefore it is a good choice and it is more safe for the elderly patients especially those that have cardiovascular diseases.

Peritoneal dialysis can help protect residual kidney functions for end stage kidney disease patients so as to slow down illness progression and delay the development of complete renal failure. More studies have found that the decline rate of kidney function is much slower than that in hemodialysis. the protection of residual kidney function is very important for improving the patient’s life quality and prolonging their life expectancy.

Peritoneal dialysis functions better than hemodialysis in removing medium molecular substances, therefore it is good for the improvement of anemia and nervous lesions.

Peritoneal dialysis is more suitable for children patients and elderly patients that are older than 65 years old.

Of cause not every kidney disease patient is suitable to have peritoneal dialysis. For example, PKD patients and ascites patients are not advised to have peritoneal dialysis. Consult your doctor to see if you can have peritoneal dialysis or not according to your specific illness conditions.