Peritoneal dialysis in infants

The need for maintenance dialysis for infants is rare, but peritoneal dialysis has been the modality of choice in cases of end-stage renal failure, for technical reasons. Problems include higher mortality rates and an inferior long-term outcome compared with that in older children. Also, no internationally accepted guidelines exist for dialysis in infants. Many children on maintenance peritoneal dialysis in Finland have congenital nephrotic syndrome of the Finnish type (NPHS1), and dialysis is started during infancy. In this commentary we discuss our practice of performing peritoneal dialysis in infants and experiences gathered from the literature.