Why skinny jeans may land women in hospital

NEW DELHI: Tight-fitting jeans led to a 35-year-old woman in Australia being hospitalized after she was found sprawled on the ground and unable to walk because of numbness in her feet. Experts in Delhi warned such cases couldn't be ruled out in the city. Doctors who attended to the woman reported that her calves were so swollen that her jeans had to be cut off. She couldn't move her ankles or toes, and had lost feeling in her lower legs. The case was cited in a study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, that highlights the dangers of what's become a fashion staple among the young — skinny jeans. Doctors say squatting in skinny jeans can restrict blood supply to nerves and muscles in the lower leg, leading to swelling, impaired sensation and difficulty in walking. In the hours before the woman fell, she had been helping a family member move house. It involved prolonged squatting to empty the cupboards while wearing skinny jeans. She was put on an intravenous drip and could walk again only after four days. "The condition could have been caused due to prolonged compression of the muscle and nerve fibres in lower legs while squatting, which her tight jeans had made worse," said experts in the study. "The jeans had prompted the development of compartment syndrome — reduced blood supply to the leg muscles, causing swelling of the muscles and compression of the adjacent nerves," the study added. TOI