Man's 'orange peel' hands and feet

Doctors in China are trying to treat a 51-year-old man whose severely swollen hands and feet have the texture of orange peel.

Yang Bing's symptoms are an extreme but classic example of pretibial myxedema, a rare complication of Graves' disease, say doctors.

He was diagnosed with Graves' disease six years ago and was put on medication indefinitely.

However, Yang complained the drugs did not relieve his original symptoms and stopped taking them after two years.

It was then that his hands and feet started to swell and - eventually - he went to the Xin Qiao Hospital in Chongqing for help.

Yang said: "To begin with several water blisters started to appear on the back of my hands and feet, then the blisters grew bigger and bigger.

"They eventually formed a hard shell and now I can't do anything with my left hand, not even make a fist.

"And I have to wear the largest slippers I can find and cut open the ends with scissors just to get them on my feet."