Abstract: 【Abstract】 Objective We aimed to investigate the incidence of acute comorbidities and hospitalization in peritoneal dialysis patients, and to analyze the clinical characteristics of the patients with comorbidities for the improvement of nursing strategies. Methods All acute comorbidities and hospitalization in long-term followed up PD patients in 2012 were recorded. Biochemical data within 1 month prior to the presence of acute comorbidities were collected. Comorbidities were divided into four groups, infection comorbidities, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular comorbidities, catheter-related non-infection comorbidities, and other comorbidities. The percentage of comorbidities and hospitalization in the four groups, and the clinical characteristics of infection comorbidities and cardiovascular or cerebrovascular comorbidities were compared. Results A total of 246 episodes of acute comorbidities occurred in 182 PD patients, with the mean age of 58.25±13.64 years, the median dialysis duration of 39.38 (20.68～58.06) months, and diabetes rate of 47.3% patients. The highest percentage of acute comorbidity was infection (59.3%), followed by cardiovascular or cerebrovascular comorbidities (29.3%), catheter-related infection (2.0%), and other comorbidities (9.3%). The outcomes of these patients included remaining in peritoneal dialysis (75.61%), transferred to hemodialysis (6.50%), and dead (17.89%). The hospitalization rate was 18.70% with the mean duration of 14.89±27.20 days and mean medical expenses of 20708.61±19078.35 yuan, in which 2275.86 ±4045.47 yuan were paid by patients themselves. Patients with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular comorbidities had higher blood phosphorus level than those with infection comorbidities (1.76± 0.54 mmol/L vs. 1.52± 0.44 mmol/L, P =0.02). Conclusions PD patients are prone to have acute comorbidities with higher hospitalization rate, high medical expenses and poor outcome. Infections as the primary comorbidities should be paid continuous attention. More concerns on hyperphosphatemia are critical to prevent cardiovascular or cerebrovascular comorbidities.

Key words: peritoneal dialysis, comorbidity, nursing