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Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is more prevalent in chronic kidney patients than in the general population, but it is often diagnosed late and its predictors are unknown., Purpose: To diagnose RLS in a group of chronic kidney patients on dialysis, determine its frequency and severity, compare the prevalence and severity of the condition among dialytic modalities, and identify possible predictive factors in this population., Methods: An observational and cross-sectional study with 326 patients who had been on dialysis for more than 3 months, 241 on hemodialysis (HD) and 85 on automatic peritoneal dialysis (APD), using the criteria established by the International Study Group on RLS for the diagnosis and the RLS Rating Scale to determine its severity., Results: RLS was diagnosed in 19.3% of the patients, 52.4% with severe or very severe forms. Patients with and without RLS did not differ in clinical and demographic characteristics and dialytic modality; however, patients on APD presented higher RLS severity compared to the HD group., Conclusions: RLS is frequent in dialysis patients and occurs predominantly in its most severe forms; the dialytic modality seems to have no influence on its occurrence; however, it is more severe in patients on APD.

Introduction: Peritonitis remains a major complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD)., Objective: Evaluate peritonitis incidence, etiology and outcome in cronic PD patients., Methods: A retrospective cohort study was carried out on 330 patients (mean age of 53 ± 19 years) who had been treated by PD in a dialysis center in Aracaju/SE, Brazil between January 1st, 2003 and December 31th, 2007. Data of patients with and without peritonitis were compared using Student's t-test, chi-squared statistic and multiple logistic regression., Results: There were 213 peritonitis among 141 patients (1.51 episode/patient) resulting in a rate of 28.44 patient/episode/ month (0.42 patient/episode/year). Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequent micro-organism isolated (27.8%), followed by Escherichia coli (13.4%) and 32.5% were culture-negative peritonitis. A greater risk of peritonitis was identified at the patients with hypoalbuminemia [relative risk (RR) = 2.0; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.21 - 3.43; p < 0,01], < 4 school years (RR = 2.15; CI = 1.09 - 4.24; p = 0.03) and catheter's exit site infection (RR = 2.63; IC = 1.57 - 4.41; p < 0.01). There were no significant difference among gender, age, family income, diabetes mellitus, type of dialysis treatment, type of catheter and its surgical implant., Conclusions: Hypoalbuminemia, low schooling and catheter's exit site infection were associated with greater risk to peritonitis. Although peritonitis rate follow international pattern, prophylactic strategies are recommended.