This paper describes our experience during the first 39 months of the CAPD program at the Miguel Perez Carreno Hospital in Caracas, Venezuela. Forty-eight patients were started on CAPD and treated for a total of 767 patient/months. Mean age was 45.8 years. Average time in the program was 15.9 months. At 39 months 87% of patients were alive and 78% were still on CAPD. The peritonitis rate was one episode per 6.39 pt/month with a probability of peritonitis of 0.70 at 25 months. Incidence of sterile peritonitis was high (41 %). Our patients had a low hospital admission rate (0.5 days per patient month) and a high percentage were rehabilitated (81%). Chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is a widely accepted therapy for end-stage renal disease (ESRD): in Venezuela, approximately 160 patients (37%) of all those under treatment for ESRD receive this form of therapy. The Nephrology Section of the Miguel Perez Carreno Hospital in Caracas manages the largest CAPD program in the country. Here 149 patients are receiving treatment for ESRD by different techniques -hospital hemodialysis, home hemodialysis, intermittent peritoneal dialysis, CAPD and renal transplantation, under the care of five nephrologists, four nephrology residents and 30 nurses. Our CAPD program started in January 1980. This paper, which describes our three years of experience, indicates that CAPD is feasible in a country such as ours which, because of economic problems, is limited in its ability to provide other forms of treatment for ESRD.

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