Survival of Dialysis Patients with Restless Legs Syndrome: A 15-Year Follow-Up Study

Restless legs syndrome, also known as Willis/Ekbom disease (RLS/WED), is a sleep-related, sensorimotor disorder with a high prevalence among end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD) (about 15-40%). Whether RLS/WED in uremic patients influences cardiovascular morbidity and mortality remains a matter of controversy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of RLS/WED and mortality in a population of chronically dialyzed patients.

In 1996, we studied 128 patients with ESRD undergoing HD; 47 subjects (36.7%) complained RLS/WED symptoms. Fifteen years later we evaluated the mortality of this population. No clinical follow-up examination of the uremic population was made. The Kaplan-Maier curves in dialysis patients with or without RLS/WED (control group matched for age) were constructed for all-cause mortality and compared using log-rank test.

The Kaplan-Maier curves disclosed a lower mortality rate in the uremic patients with RLS/WED than in those without RLS/WED (p = 0.04). In our analysis, the mortality rate was not influenced by RLS/WED severity (p = 0.11) or gender (p = 0.15). No difference among the causes of death was found in the 2 groups.

Our study suggests that mortality in ESRD patients is not influenced by concomitant RLS/WED. After a 15-year follow-up, survival rates in our cohort were significantly longer in uremic subjects with RLS/WED than in those without RLS/WED. Finally, we found no relationship between RLS/WED severity and mortality.