GoKawiil
Tech News
A case report in BMJ Case Reports describes a home-schooled boy who developed a lace-patterned skin discoloration and burn-like breakdown on his abdomen after using a laptop on his lap for up to eight hours daily, often while it was charging. Doctors initially misdiagnosed the marks as bruising and treated a suspected lung infection before eventually tracing the damage to prolonged heat exposure from the device.
A homeschooled boy in the UK developed erythema ab igne, a lace-like reddish-brown skin rash, after resting his laptop directly on his stomach for up to eight hours a day, often while it charged. Doctors initially suspected bruising before he explained his study habits, leading to the diagnosis. The condition faded and eventually cleared once he stopped placing the device on his skin.
UK physicians Mara Znagoveanu and Edward Artley documented a school-age boy who arrived at the emergency room with a wide, reddish-brown, net-like rash on his abdomen that nurses initially mistook for bruising. After ruling out trauma, illness and organ problems through exams, X-rays and a CT scan, the doctors traced the marks to prolonged, direct skin exposure to heat from a laptop the boy used daily, resulting in a condition known as erythema ab igne, or 'toasted skin syndrome.'