Dializa otrzewnowa u pacjentów w wieku podeszłym: zalety i ograniczenia

Abstract

Population aging and changes in the age structure of patients with chronic diseases (including those with end-stage kidney disease) appear the most impor­tant epidemiological trends in contemporary medi­cine that pose new challenges for public healthcare system. Increasing number of elderly patients also become candidates of renal replacement therapy. Successful dialysis in this age group encounters several barriers and difficulties due to advanced co-morbidity, limited cognitive potential and impaired adaptation to therapy among treated patients. Several key questions concerning dialysis in this patient group, including: modality selection practices, com­parison between hemodialysis and peritoneal dialy­sis, outcome of treatment, etc. remain unanswered since these and other issues could not be analyzed using high quality research. Nevertheless, based on available literature it is tempting to state that peri­toneal dialysis may be a better option for renal re­placement therapy for elderly. It seems that the most important goal of therapy should be to establish the highest achievable quality of life instead of ‘numeri­cal’ indices of adequacy.