Improvised Peritoneal Dialysis on a 5 year old girl: Experience with Double lumen Haemodialysis Catheter in South East, Nigeria

Background: The incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) in children worldwide has remained unacceptably high, especially in the developing nations. The associated mortality is very significant, and this is mainly due to unavailability of renal replacement therapy (RRT). In the face of current global economic crises, improvised peritoneal dialysis (PD) remains a more feasible RRT for children with AKI in resource limited centres.Case diagnosis: A 5 year old girl was referred to us with a history of fever, gastroenteritis, oliguria, unconsciousness and seizure. Her creatinine was 1020 μmol/L, urea 55.1mmol/L, and Bicarbonate of 15 mmol/L. A diagnosis of AKI with uraemic encephalopathy was made. Treatment/Result: She was offered peritoneal dialysis using temporary haemodialysis (HD) catheter and fortified Ringers lactate solution with a good outcome.Conclusion: While efforts should be intensified towards making standard PD catheters/fluids available and affordable for the developing nations, improvised PD could be used as an alternative in more resource poor health facilities. HD catheters can be successfully improvised as PD catheters if HD is not feasible, and standard PD catheter unavailable.Key words: Improvised, Peritoneal Dialysis, Haemodialysis Catheter, South East Nigeria