The main complication of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) is peritonitis. This paper describes our experience in the diagnosis and management of this complication in 66 patients during the three years to October 1982. The overall incidence of peritonitis was one episode every 6.75 patient months. Staphylococcus albus and Staphylococcus aureus together accounted for 46 per cent of the episodes, and 24 per cent were culture negative. Catheter exit site infections due to Staphylococcus aureus were common and they may have predisposed to peritonitis with gram -ve organisms as well as to staphylococcal peritonitis. Antimicrobial therapy was effective in 60 per cent of peritonitis episodes. The culture negative episodes usually responded to treatment while those due to fungi, though uncommon, did not. Twenty-nine per cent of these CAPD patients were transferred to haemodialysis because of peritonitis which failed to respond to treatment or which recurred repeatedly.
