Streptococcus peritonitis with urticaria.

Peritonitis following urticaria on two occasions in a 46-year-old white female treated with CAPD for nine years is reported. On both occasions an episode of urticaria and pruritus occurred 24 hr before the dialysate became cloudy, and the patient experienced abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. The culture of the peritoneal dialysis effluent grew gamma Streptococcus with the first episode. To our knowledge this is the first report of CAPD peritonitis preceded by urticaria where the skin findings were most likely related to the peritoneal infection.