Before your first treatment, a surgeon places a catheter into your belly. You may need to stay overnight in the hospital; however, most people can go home after the procedure. You may receive general or local anesthesia. The catheter stays in permanently and will transfer the dialysis solution to and from your belly. You will learn to care for the skin around the catheter, called the exit site, as part of your dialysis training. The catheter tends to work better when you give the insertion site adequate time to heal. Healing usually takes 10 to 20 days. Planning your dialysis catheter insertion at least 3 weeks before your first exchange can improve treatment success.
The catheter for peritoneal dialysis is made of soft tubing for comfort. The catheter has one or two cuffs made of a polyester material-called Dacron-that anchors the catheter in place. The end of the tubing inside your belly has many holes to let solution flow freely in and out. A transfer set is tubing that connects the catheter to the bag of dialysis solution. When you first get your catheter, the section of tube that sticks out from your skin will have a secure cap on the end to prevent infection. A connector under the cap will attach to any type of transfer set.
When your dialysis training starts, your dialysis nurse will give you a transfer set and teach you how to
- keep bacteria from entering the catheter
- connect the transfer set to the disposable dialysis tubing at the beginning of an exchange and disconnect the transfer set at the end
Follow instructions carefully to prevent infection.
Between exchanges, you can keep your catheter and transfer set hidden inside your clothing. At the beginning of an exchange, you will remove the disposable cap from the transfer set and connect the set to a tube that branches like the letter Y. One branch of the Y-tube connects to the drain bag, while the other connects to the bag of fresh dialysis solution.