Vitamin D and peritoneal dialysis: Not only against hyperparathyroidism

Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. The administration of active vitamin D, or vitamin D analogs, in PD may have significant pleiotropic effects. Specifically, the improvement of the bactericidal response could decrease the risk of peritonitis, the antiproteinuric effect could preserve the residual renal function, the reduction of the peritoneal protein loss could decrease the risk of malnutrition, and the antifibrotic effect could reduce the risk of sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis.