Management of fluid overload in infants by tidal peritoneal dialysis: is there a benefit compared with continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis?

Dialysed infants are sometimes characterized by a hyperpermeable peritoneal state. In this situation decreasing dwell time and/or increasing dialysate tonicity are usually proposed to achieve adequate ultrafiltration (UF). We have investigated UF capacity under different peritoneal dialysis modalities in three infants. UF was not obtained with isotonic continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), and was only achieved with short dwell times and hypertonic CAPD. For the prescription of automated peritoneal dialysis, a shorter dwell time of hourly sequences is needed, which consequently decreases the phosphate diffusion time. Continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis with sequences of 1 h allowed efficient UF [UF/glucose absorption (UF/G) 4.2 +/- 0.9] but the dialysate/plasma (D/P) phosphate ratio was low (0.47 +/- 0.12). In contrast, tidal peritoneal dialysis gave a better UF/G ratio (6.8 +/- 0.7) without a decrease in the D/P phosphate ratio (0.64 +/- 0.18).