• Gabriel L Pagani-Estévez, Marshall T Holland, Maja Tippmann-Peikert, Eduardo E Benarroch, Michael H Silber, and Diego Z Carvalho.
• Department of Interventional and Surgical Pain Management, Cincinnati Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45220, United States.
• Pain Med. 2023 Oct 13; 24 (Supplement_2): S18S23S18-S23.

BackgroundRestless legs syndrome (RLS) is a prevalent sensorimotor disorder that can dramatically impair sleep quality, daytime function, and quality of life. Although many patients benefit from standard pharmacological therapy, some patients suffer from insufficient treatment response or medication intolerance. Novel treatment approaches are therefore necessary.ObjectiveGiven the overlap between RLS and pain syndromes in both pathophysiological mechanisms and certain treatment options, we aimed to perform a scoping review of the available evidence on spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for RLS and discuss potential mechanistic implications.MethodsWe identified a total of 16 cases of patients with RLS who underwent SCS, all from case reports or case series.DiscussionThe published evidence is insufficient to assess SCS efficacy in patients with RLS, but SCS remains a promising investigational therapy in RLS on the basis of its potential mitigatory effects in the central hyperexcitability of the sensorimotor cortex through neuromodulation of spinal, subcortical, and cortical areas. A call for further research in this field is presented, with suggestions for future directions and trial designs.© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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