This book covers advances made in the field for the past 30 years. During the past two decades, the time during which this therapy has been increasingly utilized, this text has continued to be recognized as the major source of the discipline's base knowledge. The evolution of this text to its newest edition parallels the growth of peritoneal dialysis from Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis in the eighties to the current therapy that encompasses manual and automated therapies with full emphasis on adequacy of dialysis dose. Newer insight into host defense mechanisms have also made the past decade of advances in the field more meaningful for clinicians. This text also covers the knowledge gained from animal models of peritoneal dialysis. This book is a compilation of the latest knowledge in the field. It cites and describes in great detail, the new discoveries and the evolution of understanding the subject of these discoveries.