Peritoneal catheter survival: The impact of unroofing

Background: Unroofi ng is a controversial procedure to avoid catheter removal in the treatment of the chronic exit site and tunnel infection, but is now rarely recommended. Here we aimed to evaluate the effects of the unroofi ng procedure on peritoneal catheter survival. Methods: From our database, we prospectively evaluated the outcome of 139 peritoneal catheters placed in 121 patients (1.14 catheters per patient, 73 female, 48 male) from 08-03-1993 to 12-31- 2016. Twenty-three infected catheters needed surgical unroofi ng of the tunnel tract. We calculated the cumulative catheter survival rates (Kaplan-Meier) of 1) overall catheters and 2) not unroofed catheters, considering catheter removal as an endpoint. We also calculated 3) the unroofed catheter survival, considering the date of unroofi ng or catheter removal as the endpoint and, 4) continuity of the unroofed catheters post-unroofi ng, considering the unroofi ng date as if it were a new catheter and catheter removal as the endpoint. Likewise, we compared the survival of: a) unroofed catheters vs. continuity of the unroofed catheters and, b) no unroofed catheters vs. continuity of the unroofed catheters (Log-rank test) (signifi cance value P< 0.05).