Characteristics and outcomes of hospital‑acquired and community‑acquired peritonitis in patients on peritoneal dialysis: a retrospective cohort study

Background: Peritonitis remains a significant complication of peritoneal dialysis. However, there is limited information on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospital-acquired peritonitis compared to community-acquired peritonitis in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis. Furthermore, the microbiology and outcomes of community-acquired peritonitis may vary from hospital-acquired peritonitis. Therefore, the aim was to gather and analyse data to address this gap.

Methods: Retrospective review of the medical records of all adult patients on peritoneal dialysis within the peritoneal dialysis units in four university teaching hospitals in Sydney, Australia, who developed peritonitis between January 2010 and November 2020. We compared the clinical characteristics, microbiology and outcomes of community-acquired peritonitis and hospital-acquired peritonitis. Community acquired peritonitis was defined as the development of peritonitis in the outpatient setting. Hospital-acquired peritonitis was defined as: (1) developed peritonitis anytime during hospitalisation for any medical condition other than peritonitis, (2) diagnosed with peritonitis within 7 days of hospital discharge and developed symptoms of peritonitis within 3 days of the hospital discharge.

Results:Overall, 904 episodes of peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis were identified in 472 patients, of which 84 (9.3%) episodes were hospital-acquired. Patients with hospital-acquired peritonitis had lower mean serum albumin levels compared to those with community-acquired peritonitis(22.95 g/L vs. 25.76 g/L, p = 0.002). At the time of diagnosis, lower median peritoneal effluent leucocyte and polymorph counts were observed with hospital-acquired peritonitis compared to community-acquired peritonitis (1236.00/mm3 vs. 3183.50/mm3, p < 0.01 and 1037.00/mm3 vs. 2800.00/mm3, p < 0.01, respectively). Higher proportions of peritonitis due to Pseudomonas spp. (9.5% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.020) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (2.4% vs. 0.0%, p = 0.009), lower rates of complete cure (39.3% vs. 61.7%, p < 0.001), higher rates of refractory peritonitis (39.3% vs. 16.4%, p < 0.001) and higher all-cause mortality within 30 days of peritonitis diagnosis (28.6% vs. 3.3%, p < 0.001) were observed in the hospital-acquired peritonitis group compared to the community-acquired peritonitis group, respectively.

Conclusions:Despite having lower peritoneal dialysis effluent leucocyte counts at the time of diagnosis, patients with hospital-acquired peritonitis had poorer outcomes, including lower rates of complete cure, higher rates of refractory peritonitis and higher rates of all-cause mortality within 30 days of diagnosis, compared to those with community-acquired peritonitis.