3 types of peritoneal dialysis

You will find information about peritoneal dialysis on this page, including answers to the following questions:

What is peritoneal dialysis and how does it work?

Peritoneal dialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that uses the lining of your abdomen, or belly, to filter your blood inside your body.

Health care providers call this lining the peritoneum.

A few weeks before you start peritoneal dialysis, a surgeon places a soft tube, called a catheter, in your belly.

When you start treatment, dialysis solution—water with salt and other additives—flows from a bag through the catheter into your belly.

Peritoneal dialysis complications

When the bag is empty, you disconnect it and place a cap on your catheter so you can move around and do your normal activities. While the dialysis solution is inside your belly, it absorbs wastes and extra fluid from your body.

After a few hours, the solution and the wastes are drained out of your belly into the empty bag.

You can throw away the used solution in a toilet or tub. Then, you start over with a fresh bag of dialysis solution. When the solution is

how many times a day is peritoneal dialysis done

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