Table 6.

Differences between paracentesis and peritoneovenous placement.

	Paracentensis	Peritoneovenous placement
Abdominal girth	No significant decrease	Significant decrease
Hematocrit	No significant decrease	Significant decrease
Blood urea nitrogen, creatinine	No significant change	Tended to decrease
Median no. of procedures	Two	One (P<.0001)
Postoperative performance score	No significant improvement	Significant improvement (P=.0026)
Median survival	18 days	42 days (P=.003)
Discharge rates	Lower	Higher (P=.0076)
Severe complications	Seven patients	One patient