By the end of 1986, about 9% of the patients with TU submitted in Europe to maintenance dialysis therapy (MDT) were treated with CAPD. According to data collected by the EDTA Registry in 6 Western European Countries, the proportion of dialysis centres which in each country developed an active CAPD program has remained virtually unchanged from 1981 through 1986. In all countries CAPD is used preferably in diabetics and in patients aged more than 65 years. The 3 year technical survival is higher for the patients who started CAPD in 1983 than for those who did so in 1981 and is heavily influenced by an overall treatment strategy of TU which integrates a CAPD-renal transplantation program. In several countries the slow development of CAPD can be mainly accounted for by a weak motivation of nephrologists for implementing this efficient mode of RRT.