Background and purpose: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a neurological disorder in hemodialysis patients. These symptoms cause distress and disability during rest, discomfort, stress and weakness, with secondary effects on performance, disruption of work and family life. This study investigated the effect of heat wrap on the severity of restless legs syndrome in hemodialysis patients.

Materials and methods: A quasi-experiment (before-after design) was conducted in 40 RLS patients who were randomly selected from hemodialysis departments in three hospitals in Yazd, Iran. The restless leg syndrome International questionnaire was completed by patients before and after using hot water bags. Data analysis was done in SPSS V. 17 applying descriptive statistics and Chi-square. P> 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Most of the patients were ≥ 60 years of age (64%). 61.5% had been on dialysis for one to five years. The severity of symptoms were in moderate level before and after the intervention (69.5% and 61%, respectively). The mean score for RLS was found to be significantly different before and after the intervention (P= 0.000).

Conclusion: Application of hot water bag is suggested as an effective, safe, and low cost method that could be easily used by patients and their caregivers to reduce the severity of RLS in hemodialysis patients.