Topic Discussion: Acute Peritoneal Dialysis during COVID-19

 As the NYC area had seen surge of cases in all health systems in March, April, May 2020, need for creative solutions to do dialysis was essential. NYU and Weill Cornell in NYC were two centers that really pioneered this method during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This manuscript published in Kidney360 highlights 39 acute catheter placements and use of PD in the acute setting. Almost 40% even had recovery of AKI. 

Here is the Cornell data of 11 patients published in KI reports, 6 patients recovered.

Two concerns that most would have is:

1. Entering the rooms to do cycler and exchanges.
2. Can PD be done in prone ventilation as proning helped COVID19 patients recover?

See this picture from the NYU series

The figure shows placement of the cycler outside the ICU room and using longer connectors. Drain bags were used to obliviate use of drain line. The room was also HEFA filtered for airborne isolation.

Another series of patients in NYU was published in PD International on how they were able to do successful PD in vented patients with proning. Although the mortality was 100%, the venting was not effected and relative clearance was good. 

Perhaps, the silver lining of COVID19 related AKI-- return of Acute PD...