Peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis rates are declining

From 2013-2017, rates of peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis based on Medicare fee-for-service claims data declined by 5% per year from 0.61 episode per patient-year in 2013 to 0.49 in 2017.

Peritonitis is an important complication suffered by peritoneal dialysis patients. In this retrospective cohort study, researchers used claims information in US registry data to identify peritonitis episodes. They identified diagnoses that are associated with peritonitis and developed rules for handling ambiguous data, such as ‘clusters’ of peritonitis-indicting diagnoses that might belong to one or more episodes. This approach identified consistent differences in the risk of peritonitis by race and by age, and a substantial drop in the peritonitis rate over time. This study, recently published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), highlights the need for uniform coding standards for peritonitis and could be used to help identify additional risk factors and opportunities to improve clinical practice.