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Introduction: Peritonitis remains the major complication in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD), peritonitis rates vary in the literature, reflecting differences between countries, study design and populations., Objective: This study aimed to determine the rates of peritonitis episodes per year at risk (ep./yr), ep./yr by causative microorganism and median of peritonitis in patients on peritoneal dialysis at Hospital São Lucas., Methods: Retrospective descriptive study, with a study sample composed of patients treated with peritoneal dialysis at the Renal Unit of São Lucas Hospital between the periods from 1984 to August 2012. Only patients with complete data were considered., Results: Of the 427 patients analyzed, 53.2% (227) were females, mean age was 48.0 ± 19.9 years, 13% (56) were diabetics and 71.5% (303) of the patients performed their own treatment. There were 503 episodes of peritonitis and 255 patients had at least one episode. Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus was the most prevalent organism. The main causes of dropout from treatment were death, renal transplantation and peritonitis with 34.4, 25.8 and 19.2%, respectively. The rate of peritonitis was 0.63 ep./yr, rates by microorganism were 0.18 ep./yr for coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, 0.12 ep./yr for Staphylococcus aureus and Gram negative. The median of peritonitis in the unit was 0.41 ep./yr., Conclusion: The rate of peritonitis ep./yr and median of patients studied is within the recommended minimum, but below the suggested targets proposed by the position statement of ISPD.