Background: At present, peritoneal dialysis (PD) is widely used in the clinical treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), and comparison of the efficacy of PD and hemodialysis (HD) in the treatment of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) has been reported in a few clinical studies.Methods: In this study, "dialysis", "peritoneal dialysis", "renal replacement therapy", "end-stage renal disease", "diabetic renal disease", and "efficacy and safety" were used as search terms in Chinese and English databases. According to RevMan 5.3 and Stata 13 software provided by the Cochrane Collaboration, a metaanalysis was performed.Results: Four randomized controlled trials were included in this study, and 3 trials described the randomization method, 3 described allocation concealment in detail, and 2 used the blinding method.Compared with the HD treatment in the control group, the PD treatment in the experimental group can significantly reduce the hemoglobin of patients with end-stage DKD [Mean difference (MD) =-0.13, 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.21 to -0.04; P=0.003<0.05] and Albumin level (MD = -0.10, 95% CI: -0.16 to -0.04; P=0.002<0.05). Compared with the control group, the PD treatment in the experimental group significantly increased the serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen levels in patients with end-stage DKD, but there was no significant difference in the effects of PD and HD treatment on serum creatinine levels (MD =-0.30, 95% CI: -0.77 to 0.16; P=0.20>0.05), (MD =1.93, 95% CI: -2.65 to 6.51; P=-0.41>0.05). In addition, PD treatment in the experimental group significantly increased the probability of malignant tumors in patients with end-stage DKD [odds ratio (OR) =1.86, 95% CI: 1.64 to 2.10; P<0.00001], and the difference was significant.Discussions: This study used meta-analysis to confirm that PD can significantly improve the renal function of patients with end-stage DKD, but it can also increase the probability of protein loss and complications.