Automated Peritoneal Dialysis

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) was first used in clinical practice by Ganter in 1923 (1). The early experiences used a continuous flow and an intermittent technique with manual exchanges. Although the continuous technique gained popularity during the first two decades of clinical application, intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD) became the predominant method by the 1940’s (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13). The predilection for IPD was mostly due to the need for only one peritoneal catheter while the continuous technique required two. By the 1960’s IPD was well established and markedly improved (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19). Its use for the treatment of acute and chronic renal failure was well accepted. However, the manual procedures were time consuming and expensive since they required the supervision of medical personnel