A Retrospective Analysis of Peritoneal Dialysis-associated Peritonitis at a Single-care Children’s Hospital in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) may lead to infection, which could cause dialysis failure. Estimates of infectious peritonitis rate, identification of causative microbes, and infection outcomes are scarcely reported in Saudi Arabia. We conducted this study to provide epidemiological data as a geographical reference for PD-associated peritonitis. Epidemiological, microbiological, and clinical data were retrospectively collected from pediatric patients’ medical records who were on PD between 2009 and 2018. A total of 54 pediatric patients on PD were involved in the study. The median age of the patients was 3.6 years [interquartile range (IQR) 1.7–8.0]; 56% were female children. The median time spent on PD was 39.5 months (IQR 19.75–64.25), with an overall peritonitis rate of 0.52 episodes per patient-year. In terms of infection, 116 PD-associated peritonitis episodes were identified in 37 patients. There were 38 infection episodes (32.3%) due to skin microbiota, 22 (18.8%) of gut microbiota, 12 (10.2%) of environmental microbiota, three (2.6%) of polymicrobial, and 27 (23.2%) of culture negative peritonitis. There were 45 (39%) episodes of noncomplicated peritonitis and 71 (61%) complicated peritonitis episodes. The latter included 14 (19%) relapses, 45 (63%) repeated infections, and 12 (17%) catheter removals. Using multivariate analysis, the history of peritonitis [OD 7.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.87–20.00] and the presence of cardiovascular disease (OD 3.24,95% CI 1.18–8.85) were independent predictors of a complicated peritonitis episode. History of infectious peritonitis and the presence of cardiovascular disease are potential predictors of complicated PD-associated peritonitis and may provide an identifier of high-risk patients.