[Morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing dialysis. Comparison of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Our experience].

BACKGROUND: We have compared the hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis populations of our Center for morbidity and mortality, in a retrospective study of six years of activity.

METHODS: We enrolled 125 patients (104 patients/year/million inhabitants), who had been in chronic dialysis from 1992 to 1997: 90 (22-90 years old) initiated in hemodialysis and 35 (27-82 years old) in peritoneal dialysis.

RESULTS: We have evaluated survival and morbility, as hospitalization/patient/year in both groups. Mortality did not prove significantly different in the two groups. The global average of hospitalization was 8 days/patient/year for hemodialysis and 6 for peritoneal dialysis.

CONCLUSIONS: In spite of the short time of observation and the exiguity of numbers, our experience shows that the two methods are equivalent.