Successful Treatment of Idiopathic Eosinophilic Peritonitis by Oral Corticosteroid Therapy in a Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis Patient

Eosinophilic peritonitis is a well-described complication of peritoneal dialysis and is often associated with either a reaction to the dialysis system constituent (tubing, sterilant or solution) or an underlying bacterial or fungal reaction. We report a case of eosinophilic peritonitis, which is treated by oral prednisone acetate therapy. A 43-year-old female patient developed end-stage renal disease and underwent continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis for 2.5 years. The patient received 2,000 ml of 1.5% dialysis solution (PD2) with three exchanges daily and 2,000 ml of 2.5% PDF overnight (PD2). She went to the consultation because of a constant turbid peritoneal dialysis effluent for 3 months without abdominal pain. Repeated peritoneal effluent samples showed an elevated white blood cell count of 500 cells/mm3, with 87% eosinophils. The peripheral blood test revealed a white blood cell count of 3.8 × 109/l, with 32.2% eosinophils. Etiology like bacterial and fungal infection was excluded by peritoneal fluid culture. Turbidness persisted in spite of diagnostic antibiotic treatment. Given the fact that we found a significant elevation of eosinophils in the peripheral blood and an absolute increase in the eosinophil count of >30/mm3 in dialysis fluid (up to 400/mm3 in our patient), obvious dialysate effluent turbidness, negative results of repeated peritoneal fluid cultures, inefficacy of antibiotic therapy, and negativity of serum tumor and immunological markers, we drew the conclusion that the patient had idiopathic eosinophilic peritonitis. Oral corticosteroid was administered at once (20 mg prednisone acetate daily), which was gradually weaned off and stopped over an 8-week period. Afterwards, the dialysis effluent became clear, and the cytological analysis showed that the white blood cell count decreased to 1 × 106/l, with no eosinophils. This case reminds us that the diagnosis of eosinophilic peritonitis should be considered when repeated cultures are always negative and the turbidness of peritoneal dialysis effluent persists in spite of an antibiotic therapy.