Hipsters fashion pinches a nerve
17 January 2003
Tight hipster jeans have joined the list of fashion disasters that can injure their hapless wearers, with reports from Canada that they can cause 'tingly thighs'.
The hipster jeans could lead to compression of a nerve — the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve — as it passes under the inguinal ligament in the groin area, causing pain and paraesthesia (a tingling sensation) in the thigh, said Dr Malvinder Parmar from Timmins and District Hospital, Ontario.
The condition, known as meralgia paraesthetica, has previously been described in people wearing wallets close to the skin, or tight jeans. But now that hipster jeans are back in fashion, Dr Parmar predicted doctors would be seeing more patients with tingly thighs.
Dr Parmar saw 3 mildly obese women aged 22 to 35 who had worn tight hipsters over the previous 6 to 8 months.
All presented with symptoms of tingling or a burning sensation on the outer aspect of one or both thighs, and 2 had mild local tenderness.
Symptoms resolved after 4 to 6 weeks of avoiding hipsters and wearing loose-fitting dresses, he wrote in a letter to the Canadian Medical Association Journal (2003; 168: 16).
'Simple observation of the patient's mode of dress may give a clue to diagnosis,' he said.
Last Reviewed: 16 January 2003
- 1. Medical Observer Weekly 17/01/03
