Restless Legs Syndrome in Dialysis Patients: Does the Dialysis Modality Influence Its Occurrence and Severity?

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is more prevalent in chronic kidney patients than in the general population, but it is often diagnosed late and its predictors are unknown.

Purpose: To diagnose RLS in a group of chronic kidney patients on dialysis, determine its frequency and severity, compare the prevalence and severity of the condition among dialytic modalities, and identify possible predictive factors in this population.

Methods: An observational and cross-sectional study with 326 patients who had been on dialysis for more than 3 months, 241 on hemodialysis (HD) and 85 on automatic peritoneal dialysis (APD), using the criteria established by the International Study Group on RLS for the diagnosis and the RLS Rating Scale to determine its severity.

Results: RLS was diagnosed in 19.3% of the patients, 52.4% with severe or very severe forms. Patients with and without RLS did not differ in clinical and demographic characteristics and dialytic modality; however, patients on APD presented higher RLS severity compared to the HD group.

Conclusions: RLS is frequent in dialysis patients and occurs predominantly in its most severe forms; the dialytic modality seems to have no influence on its occurrence; however, it is more severe in patients on APD.