Cardiac arrhythmia in chronic renal failure: Holter monitoring during hemodialysis and intermittent peritoneal dialysis

Twenty patients undergoing intermittent peritoneal dialysis (IPD) and 20 patients on hemodialysis (HD) for end-stage kidney disease underwent Holter ECG monitoring for a continuous 24-h period, starting prior to the onset of dialysis and continuing until several hours after it. Clinically significant ventricular arrhythmias were found in only 2 of 20 patient in the HD group; no such ventricular arrhythmias were observed in the IPD group. Supraventricular arrhythmias were equally prevalent in both groups. Thus, the differences between IPD and HD are not great and it seems that HD is, at most, a mild arrhythmogenic procedure. However, in patients with proven heart disease or signs of left ventricular hypertrophy, peritoneal dialysis (intermittent or continuous ambulatory) appears to be preferable to HD.