Primer Consenso Nacional del Uso de Antibióticos en Peritonitis Secundaria a Diálisis Peritoneal Continua Ambulatoria (DPCA)

The continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is a procedure that has offered therapeutic alternatives to individuals suffering from chronic renal failure, increasing their survival expectations in such an ailment. However, this technique is usually related to secondary complications (infections), as it is the case with other invasive procedures (catheters, valves, prostheses), which tend to become infected with resistant pathogens during the course of the treatment. The peritoneal dialysis may promote secondary peritonitis among many of the patients who depend on such a procedure to continue living and, it may produce serious infectious complications, commonly associated to high mortality rates. The problem of CAPD-related peritonitis is one of the most frequent complications which not only have an impact on the quality of life, survival rate and, nutritional status of the patient, but also on the effectiveness and feasibility of the therapy. The lack of a consensus which allows the standardization of diagnosis and treatment criteria has resulted in poor quality management and in inappropriate use and abuse of antimicrobial drugs prescribed to treat such a condition. Further, the practical absence of management protocols has determined an increase in morbidity and mortality rates, the frequency of multiresistant pathogen isolation and the patient/cost/treatment ratios. The aim of this document is to update the current data regarding this infectious complication, as well as to standardize antimicrobial drug therapeutic approaches, which will allow a more effective control of it. It may eventually have a direct impact on quality of life, as well as on the feasibility of short term regimens in patients undergoing CAPD to overcome the limitations and risks imposed upon them by chronic renal failure, and to extend the survival expectations of the patients, decreasing the