Device-assisted continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis: A single-centre experience

Assisted peritoneal dialysis in Europe: a strategy to increase and maintain home dialysis

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a form of kidney replacement therapy with the major advantage that it can be performed at home. This has a positive impact on patients' autonomy and quality of life. However, the dialysis population is ageing and physical and/or cognitive impairments are common. These limitations often form a barrier to PD and contribute to the low incidence and prevalence of PD in Europe. Assisted PD can be a solution to this problem. Assisted PD refers to a patient being assisted by a person or device in performing all or part of their dialysis-related tasks, thereby making PD more accessible to elderly but also younger frail patients. In this way, offering an assisted PD program can help lower the threshold for initiating PD. In this review, we provide an overview of the epidemiology of assisted PD in Europe, we discuss the different categories and clinical outcomes of assisted PD, and we present how assisted PD can be implemented in clinical practice as a possible strategy to increase and maintain home dialysis in Europe.

Connection assist devices for peritoneal dialysis

Patients with kidney failure who require kidney replacement therapy (KRT) have been increasing globally. Home-based therapies, such as peritoneal dialysis (PD), allow patients to undergo KRT in the home environment, alleviating treatment costs, patient transport, and hospital admission. Peritoneal dialysis-related peritonitis is still the most frequent complication of PD and is often related to technique failure, which can result in PD failure, transfer to hemodialysis, or mortality. The cause of technique failure is multifactorial, and a portion of technique failure is due to underlying physical or cognitive disabilities. There are several connection devices that have been developed to reduce CAPD-related peritonitis. These connection devices are reviewed in this article.