High volume peritoneal dialysis vs daily hemodialysis: A randomized, controlled trial in patients with acute kidney injury

There is no consensus in the literature on the best renal replacement therapy (RRT) in acute kidney injury (AKI), with both hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) being used as AKI therapy. However, there are concerns about the inadequacy of PD as well as about the intermittency of HD complicated by hemodynamic instability. Recently, continuous replacement renal therapy (CRRT) have become the most commonly used dialysis method for AKI around the world. A prospective randomized controlled trial was performed to compare the effect of high volume peritoneal dialysis (HVPD) with daily hemodialysis (DHD) on AKI patient survival. A total of 120 patients with acute tubular necrosis (ATN) were assigned to HVPD or DHD in a tertiary-care university hospital. The primary end points were hospital survival rate and renal function recovery, with metabolic control as the secondary end point. Sixty patients were treated with HVPD and 60 with DHD. The HVPD and DHD groups were similar for age (64.2±19.8 and 62.5±21.2 years), gender (male: 72 and 66%), sepsis (42 and 47%), hemodynamic instability (61 and 63%), severity of AKI (Acute Tubular Necrosis-Index Specific Score (ATN-ISS): 0.68±0.2 and 0.66±0.2), Acute Physiology, Age, and Chronic Health Evaluation Score (APACHE II) (26.9±8.9 and 24.1±8.2), pre-dialysis BUN (116.4±33.6 and 112.6±36.8 mg per 100 ml), and creatinine (5.8±1.9 and 5.9±1.4 mg per 100 ml). Weekly delivered Kt/V was 3.6±0.6 in HVPD and 4.7±0.6 in DHD (P<0.01). Metabolic control, mortality rate (58 and 53%), and renal function recovery (28 and 26%) were similar in both groups, whereas HVPD was associated with a significantly shorter time to the recovery of renal function. In conclusion, HVPD and DHD can be considered as alternative forms of RRT in AKI.