High-quality patient care pathways are central to the establishment of peritoneal dialysis

摘要

High-quality health care requires responsive patient pathways, and one of the challenges of establishing patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) is that such pathways are easily fractured. Such fracturing was demonstrated in the IDEAL study (1), in which patients who were randomized to start PD later in the course of their chronic kidney disease (5-7 mL/min) were less likely to actually be established on PD therapy (they were more likely to receive hemodialysis) than were those who were randomized to start PD earlier (10 - 14 mL/min).