By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner, Ap Medical Writer Mon
Oct 4, 12:57 am ET
CHICAGO Have you ever worked on your laptop computer with it sitting on your
lap, heating up your legs? If so, you might want to rethink that habit.
Doing it a lot can lead to "toasted skin syndrome," an unusual-looking mottled
skin condition caused by long-term heat exposure, according to medical reports.
In one recent case, a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin
discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every
day for several months.
"He recognized that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, regardless of
that, he did not change its position," Swiss researchers reported in an article
published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
Another case involved a Virginia law student who sought treatment for the
mottled discoloration on her leg.
Dr. Kimberley Salkey, who treated the young woman, was stumped until she
learned the student spent about six hours a day working with her computer
propped on her lap. The temperature underneath registered 125 degrees.
That case, from 2007, is one of 10 laptop-related cases reported in medical
journals in the past six years.
The condition also can be caused by overuse of heating pads and other heat
sources that usually aren't hot enough to cause burns. It's generally harmless
but can cause permanent skin darkening. In very rare cases, it can cause damage
leading to skin cancers, said the Swiss researchers, Drs. Andreas Arnold and
Peter Itin from University Hospital Basel. They do not cite any skin cancer
cases linked to laptop use, but suggest, to be safe, placing a carrying case or
other heat shield under the laptop if you have to hold it in your lap.
Salkey, an assistant dermatology professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School,
said that under the microscope, the affected skin resembles skin damaged by
long-term sun exposure.
Major manufacturers including Apple, Hewlett Packard and Dell warn in user
manuals against placing laptops on laps or exposed skin for extended periods of
time because of the risk for burns.
A medical report several years ago found that men who used laptops on their
laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. If prolonged, that kind of heat can
decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to infertility. Whether
laptop use itself can cause that kind of harm hasn't been confirmed.
In the past, "toasted skin syndrome" has occurred in workers whose jobs require
being close to a heat source, including bakers and glass blowers, and, before
central heating, in people who huddled near potbellied stoves to stay warm.
Dr. Anthony J. Mancini, dermatology chief at Children's Memorial Hospital in
Chicago, said he'd treated a boy who developed the condition from using a
heating pad "hours at a time" to soothe a thigh injured in soccer. Mancini said
he'd also seen a case caused by a hot water bottle.
He noted that chronic, prolonged skin inflammation can potentially increase
chances for squamous cell skin cancer, which is more aggressive than the most
common skin cancer. But Mancini said it's unlikely computer use would lead to
cancer since it's so easy to avoid prolonged close skin contact with laptops.