#2771 Peritoneal dialysis after kidney graft loss … and now, what?

Abstract Background and Aims The evolution of peritoneal dialysis (PD) as renal replacement therapy (RRT) after graft loss is not well defined. Method Retrospective analysis of the Andalusian Renal Registry of patients who received their first kidney transplant (KT) in Andalusia (Spain) and returned to dialysis between 1978-2023. Patients who lost follow-up and those who underwent preemptive re-KT were excluded of the study. We compared clinical characteristics and evolution between those who started hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) after graft loss. Secondly, we analyzed technique and patient survival in those who started PD post-KT versus patients on PD as their first renal replacement therapy (RRT) We performed multivariate analysis for PD technique and patient survival risk factors using Cox regression. Results During this period, we followed 11868 KT recipients in Andalusia. Of these, 3148 (26.52%) lost the graft: 2768 started HD and 298 PD. 82 patients underwent preemptive re-KT. Patients who returned to DP were younger (p 0.001) and glomerulonephritis as cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) was more frequent (p = 0.019). The pre-KT RRT was HD in 96.3% of patients starting HD post-KT and PD in 48.3% of patients who returned to PD after KT (p 0.001). Survival of patients in the HD group was lower than those who started PD (p = 0.026). In the multivariate analysis, older age when dialysis restarted, male sex and diabetes were risk factors for patient death and not the type of dialysis. When comparing only the post-KT PD group (n = 298) versus patients on PD as their first RRT (n = 5312), patients on the first group were younger (57.1 vs. 41.9; p 0.001) and time on PD was longer (24.4 vs. 19 months; p 0.001). The causes of PD drop-out also varied between groups (p 0.001). During this period, 269 post-KT PD patients left the technique mainly due to re-KT (34.3%) and in the PD group as the first RRT, there were 4919 technique drop-outs, mainly due to transfer to HD (35.3%) and death (30%). The percentage of peritonitis was higher in the post-KT PD group, although without significant differences (post-KT PD 27.9% vs. PD as first RRT 23.25%; p = 0.061). Survival of the DP technique in post-KT PD group was 78.2% at 1 year and 38.5% at 5 years, and 77.7% and 42.1% respectively in the DP group as the first DP RRT (p = 0.059). In the multivariate analysis, patient age and diabetes as a cause of CKD, behaved as risk factors for patient survival. Conclusion Almost half of the patients starting PD after KT had been on PD prior to transplantation. They tend to have more peritonitis although survival of the technique and complications were very similar to those observed in patients on PD as first RRT.