Q: My 66 years old mother is suffering from kidney infection and requires dialysis twice a week. Will home dialysis (peritoneal) be safe for her?

A:Within peritoneal dialysis(PD), one could opt for either automated PD (APD) which involves a cycler device undertaking the exchanges at night giving flexibility to the patient to work in the day or continuous ambulatory PD(CAPD) involving exchanges during day time as well. Both the modalities of PD are equally effective with neither been shown to have more risks for infection or increased long term morbidity over the other. Patients who cannot do exchanges on their own and need assistance are better off with APD. Lastly, you would need to factor in the cost, APD being more costly than CAPD. I would recommend starting patients on CAPD first and then evaluating them further with regard to their performance of how effective the dialysis has been. Later, based on patient's preference and motivation and the support system, one could opt for APD.