Peritoneal dialysis (PD) confers many advantages, including a better quality of life for children with end-stage renal disease; however, the procedure is associated with several complications, including pleuroperitoneal leaks. Here, we report an unusual case of hydrothorax caused by long-term PD in a child, which was further complicated by pneumonia. A 9-year-old boy who had received CAPD for 22 months presented with dyspnea, swelling, and increased body weight. Chest tube drainage yielded 500 mL of transudative fluid. Computed tomography peritoneography revealed increased outflow from the peritoneum to the pleural cavity. PD was suspended, and hemodialysis (HD) was initiated. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery was performed; however, because the patient had pneumonia during hospitalization, pleural adhesions with a septated appearance occurred. This resulted in difficulties identifying pleuroperitoneal fistula (PPF). Right pleural effusion resolved following pleurodesis using bleomycin. Ambarsari et al.: Effective Management of PD-Associated Hydrothorax in a Child 19Regular HD was performed for 10 weeks, and PD was subsequently reinitiated. There was no recurrence of hydrothorax during long-term follow-up. We suspect that the underlying mechanism of hydrothorax in our patient was associated with a PPF that formed either due to a congenital diaphragmatic defect or an acquired defect, resulting in dialysate leakage. Our case demonstrates that a temporary switch from PD to HD, accompanied by pleurodesis, may help resolve hydrothorax that occurs as a complication of long-term PD.

Objective: Mechanical complications of peritoneal dialysis (PD) may occur because of surgical complications when inserting a Tenckhoff catheter or non-surgical complications during chronic care of a PD catheter. We aim to highlight the latter by presenting a case report of twisted external catheter. Method: We report an 11-year-old Indonesian girl with end-stage renal disease on continuous ambulatory PD at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital who was hospitalized due to repeat peritonitis.Result: Upon examination, the external catheter seemed twisted without inflow, outflow, or ultrafiltration problems. Her exit score was 4 with gaping. Both abdominal X-ray and ultrasound showed that the catheter and its cuffs were properly placed. The patient frequently pulled and manipulated her PD catheter. Additionally, the catheter-site care procedure was frequently done by untrained caregivers and catheter fixation was also not performed. A retraining program for all involved caregivers was carried out. Peritonitis resolved after 14-day-treatment using intraperitoneal gentamicin. We determined that the twisted catheter and repeat peritonitis were due to a combination of mechanical trauma, poor chronic catheter-site care, and suboptimal PD catheter training. Conclusion: Maintaining compliance for chronic PD catheter exit-site care by well-trained caregivers and by patients themselves, as well as the external catheter fixation are important.

ObjectiveDiagnosing tuberculous meningitis (TBM) in children is challenging due to the low sensitivity with time delay of bacterial culture techniques and the lack of brain imaging facilities in many low- and middle-income settings. This study aims to establish and test a scoring system consisting of clinical manifestations on history and examination for diagnosing TBM in children.DesignA retrospective study was conducted using a diagnostic multivariable prediction model.Participants167 children diagnosed with meningitis (tuberculous, bacterial, viral and others) aged 3 months to 18 years who were hospitalised from July 2011 until November 2021 in a national tertiary hospital in Indonesia.ResultsEight out of the 10 statistically significant clinical characteristics were used to develop a predictive model. These resulted in good discrimination and calibration variables, which divided into systemic features with a cut-off score of ≥3 (sensitivity 78.8%; specificity 86.6%; the area under the curve (AUC) value 0.89 (95% CI 0.85 to 0.95; p<0.001)) and neurological features with a cut-off score of ≥2 (sensitivity 61.2%; specificity 75.2%; the AUC value 0.73 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.81; p<0.001)). Combined together, this scoring system predicted the diagnosis of TBM with a sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value of 47.1%, 95.1% and 90.9%, respectively.ConclusionThe clinical scoring system consisting of systemic and neurological features can be used to predict the diagnosis of TBM in children with limited resource setting. The scoring system should be assessed in a prospective cohort.