Continuous Cyclic Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD) is also known as Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD). It is just like CAPD except that a machine, which connects to the catheter, automatically fills and drains the dialysate from the abdomen. With CCPD, exchanges are performed while the patient is asleep. It uses a machine called a cycler. It takes about 30 minutes to set up the device before you go to bed. 

How does it work? 

Before going to sleep, the patient will connect the catheter to the tubes attached to the machine called a cycler. The patient will be attached to the device for approximately 8 hours every night. It puts the dialysate in the abdomen, waits for the correct dwell time and drains it out into a bag after the exchange is complete. Then the machine will fill the stomach with clean dialysate and begin the process again. This will be done 3-5 times. The dwell time is short with this process. The machine controls when the fluid should drain out and when new fluid should be put in. The machine is programmed to control the fluid movement and is set as per individual requirement. The person is unhooked from the machine during the day. Some cycler patients perform a minimum of one mid-day exchange in order to achieve adequate dialysis. 

Complications 

Most of the complications with CCPD can be managed. Some of them usually occur due to the continuous use of a catheter. Common complications include: 

• Back pain 
• Local edema 
• Hernia formation 
• Leaks 

Benefits 

• It does not require 3-4 visits to a dialysis centre as seen with hemodialysis. 
• Automatic- Machine performs the exchanges overnight whilst you are asleep. 
• For Diabetic patient- Diabetes causes complications that compromise the kidney filtration rate. It offers many potential benefits to diabetic ESRD patients. 
• Peritonitis cases have been found to be lower in APD than CAPD.