Can the peritoneum regain its filtering ability after years of idling?

Hi all,

I was on PD from 1999 to 2005 and then had to switch to daily nocturnal home hemo after a series if exit site, tunnel and peritoneal cavity infections and subsequent loss of filtering ability (hardly any UF). Since then I have been on daily home hemo.

My nephrologist suddenly suggested a couple of days back that we try putting a PD catheter laproscopically and try PD.

While this has me all excited because I would prefer PD any day to hemo, I wanted to check if this was at all possible. Does the peritoneal membrane and the entire system in there ‘recover’ so-to-speak? My neph says maybe the adhesions that had formed might have dissolved.

Could this be possible?

Thanks
Kamal

Kamal, I’ve never heard of adhesions “dissolving” no matter how much time you give them. Please ask Dr. Agar and/or Judith Bernardini about this. Also, while PD has some terrific pluses, it works best when you still have some residual kidney function. If you don’t have any, you get far better clearances from nocturnal HD.