Medical experts are concerned about a fashion trend that caused an Adelaide woman to lose blood supply to her legs and collapse in the street, unable to walk.

The woman, 35, had been helping a relative move house earlier that day and was squatting for hours while emptying kitchen cupboards – wearing skinny jeans.

But it wasn’t until later that night while on a walk alone that she lost all feeling in her legs and fell to the ground. She lay there for several hours crawling around until she could hail a cab to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).

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The woman arrived to hospital, where she would remain for four days, with her legs dangerously swollen, and emergency doctors had to cut off her jeans.

Doctors found the woman had damaged muscle and nerve fibres in her lower legs as a result of prolonged compression while squatting – made worse by her very tight jeans.

“The blood supply had been reduced to her leg muscles, causing them to swell and the adjacent nerves to compress,” RAH associate professor Thomas Kimber said.

Skinny denim lovers could be damaging their muscle and nerve fibres. Photo: Shutterstock

“Her skinny jeans felt increasingly tight and uncomfortable, but she didn’t think much of it and later went for a walk.

“As she was walking she was having trouble lifting her feet and it got so bad she eventually fell and was unable to get up again.”

Describing the case as a “cautionary tale” Prof Kimber, who treated the woman, said people wearing skinny jeans should avoid squatting for long periods or wear something loose or with elasticity.

“When she arrived she had massive, really severe, swelling of both calves to the extent we were unable to take her jeans off without cutting them,” Prof Kimber said.

“She couldn’t move her ankles or toes properly and had lost feeling in her lower legs and feet.”

The neurologist said this was the first case of skinny denim leg damage they had seen.

“It was well recognised that squatting for long periods of time, regardless of what you were wearing, could occasionally cause compression of the perineal nerve at the knee,” he said.

“But this is the first case we are aware of where there has been such severe calf muscle swelling and such involvement of the two main nerves – the perineal and the tibial.”

The woman had fully recovered after being put on an intravenous drip and was discharged after four days when she could walk unaided.

The case was reported in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

– with AAP