Doctors have revealed the case of an Adelaide women who ended up in hospital after she spent hours squatting in skinny jeans while helping a relative move house.
The blood supply to the 35-year-old's leg was dangerously reduced. She had numbness in her feet, making it so difficult to walk that she fell and couldn't get up.
The doctors found damaged muscle and nerve fibres in her lower legs as a result of prolonged compression from the tight pants.
The case study, reported by Karmen Wai and colleagues at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, is published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The woman, who had been emptying cupboards, said she recalled the skinny jeans feeling increasingly tight and uncomfortable as the day wore on.
Later that evening, she tripped. Unable to get up, she spent several hours lying on the ground before she was found.
Her calves were so swollen her jeans had to be cut off. She couldn't move her ankles or toes properly and had lost feeling in her lower legs and feet.
The doctors say the jeans had prompted the development of compartment syndrome — reduced blood supply to the legs, causing muscle swelling and compression of nerves.
She was put on an intravenous drip. Four days later she could walk unaided again and was discharged from hospital.
Previous reports of injuries from tight jeans have been limited to sores on the thighs.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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