How to get rid of heating pad burns: Toasted Skin Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

23.07.202323.06.2023 by alexxlab

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Toasted Skin Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

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Medically reviewed by Cynthia Cobb, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, FAANP — By Mary Sweeney, RN, BSN, CEN, ONN-CG-T on September 30, 2020

If you’ve ever used a laptop and balanced it on your legs, there’s a chance you’ve felt some heat coming from it.

Toasted skin syndrome happens when your legs are exposed to that heat for longer periods of time. It isn’t usually a serious condition but has been linked to cancer.

While there’s no treatment for it, there are some things that you can do to reverse toasted skin syndrome in the early stages. Read on to learn more about this condition, as well as its causes and treatments.

Toasted skin syndrome, also known as erythema ab igne, is a condition that causes skin discoloration, itching, and burning sensations.

This happens after your skin is exposed to a heat source repeatedly over a long period of time, but the heat is not hot enough to actually burn your skin.

When your skin is exposed to low-grade heat — 109.4 to 116.6°F (43 to 47°C) — it can cause a red, circular area of discoloration to the area that is exposed.

The exact cause of the discoloration is not well-known, but it’s thought that the prolonged heat exposure causes changes to the elastic fibers that make up your skin, as well as changes to the microscopic blood vessels that live at the skin’s surface.

Scientists have compared these changes to those that occur when your skin is repeatedly exposed to ultraviolet rays, either from the sun or from indoor tanning booths.

Toasted skin syndrome can be caused by a variety of modern-day items, but it has been around for much longer than you might think.

When the syndrome was first discovered, items that caused this skin irritation included wood-burning stoves and working with hot coals.

Often, coal workers and chefs who had prolonged exposure to heat sources like these developed toasted skin syndrome on their faces.

Modern causes of toasted skin syndrome are a little different. Current common causes include:

Prolonged use of a laptop on the thighs. This is usually evident on the left thigh since most laptop batteries and vents are located on the left side of the device. With the recent increase in remote work, it’s likely that this will become more common.
Seat heaters in cars. There have been cases reported in people who use their seat heaters for 2 to 4 hours at a time.
Heating pads or hot water bottles. While these are helpful in easing pain in the abdomen, there have been reported cases of toasted skin syndrome after using them for long periods of time.
Space heaters. Historically, toasted skin syndrome was found in older people who spent much of their time in front of radiators or space heaters.

Erythema ab igne in children

Children may be at an increased risk of toasted skin syndrome since their skin is generally more sensitive than adults.

There have been reported cases in children who spend several hours per day playing video games on a laptop perched on their thighs.

Was this helpful?

Toasted skin syndrome is usually resolved by removing the heat source that is causing it. However, sometimes it can cause more dramatic changes in your skin cells that can develop into other conditions, including cancer.

The types of cancer that are associated with toasted skin syndrome include:

squamous cell carcinoma
Merkel cell carcinoma
cutaneous lymphoma

While cancer isn’t a common complication of toasted skin syndrome, it’s important to talk to your healthcare provider about any skin changes you notice.

While there’s not one specific treatment for toasted skin syndrome, there are things that you can do to help ease the symptoms. These include:

Removing the heat source. This is the best way to prevent any further irritation from happening. Once the heat source is removed, it’s likely that the discoloration will fade and any irritation will resolve. If the cause is a laptop, consider putting a laptop cover on your computer or relocating your workspace.
Topical medications. Topical medications like retinoids can help with the symptoms of toasted skin syndrome. A dermatologist can recommend one that is best for your particular situation.

Toasted skin syndrome is caused by prolonged heat exposure to your skin, usually from heat sources like laptop batteries, space heaters, or heating pads.

These heat sources can cause changes in your skin’s cells and fibers, which can then create a discoloration on your skin.

Sometimes, these skin cell changes can develop into cancer. Treatment involves taking away the heat source that’s causing irritation, as well as using medications on the skin to calm the irritation.

If you’re noticing any changes in your skin, especially after applying a heat source, it’s important to talk to a healthcare provider to rule out any more serious conditions.

Last medically reviewed on September 30, 2020

How we reviewed this article:

Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Arnold AW, et al. (2010). Laptop computer-induced erythema ab igne in a child and review of the literature. DOI:
10.1542/peds.2010-1390
Kesty K, et al. (2014). Erythema ab igne: Evolving technology, evolving presentation.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25419755/
Riahi RR, et al. (2012). Laptop-induced erythema ab igne: Report and review of literature.
escholarship.org/uc/item/4n04r793
Salgado F, et al. (2018). Erythema ab igne: New technology rebounding upon its users? DOI:
10.1111/ijd.13609

Share this article

Medically reviewed by Cynthia Cobb, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, FAANP — By Mary Sweeney, RN, BSN, CEN, ONN-CG-T on September 30, 2020

Toasted Skin Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

Health Conditions
- Featured
  - Breast Cancer
  - IBD
  - Migraine
  - Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
  - Rheumatoid Arthritis
  - Type 2 Diabetes
- Articles
  - Acid Reflux
  - ADHD
  - Allergies
  - Alzheimer’s & Dementia
  - Bipolar Disorder
  - Cancer
  - Crohn’s Disease
  - Chronic Pain
  - Cold & Flu
  - COPD
  - Depression
  - Fibromyalgia
  - Heart Disease
  - High Cholesterol
  - HIV
  - Hypertension
  - IPF
  - Osteoarthritis
  - Psoriasis
  - Skin Disorders and Care
  - STDs
Discover
- Wellness Topics
  - Nutrition
  - Fitness
  - Skin Care
  - Sexual Health
  - Women’s Health
  - Mental Well-Being
  - Sleep
- Product Reviews
  - Vitamins & Supplements
  - Sleep
  - Mental Health
  - Nutrition
  - At-Home Testing
  - CBD
  - Men’s Health
- Original Series
  - Fresh Food Fast
  - Diagnosis Diaries
  - You’re Not Alone
  - Present Tense
- Video Series
  - Youth in Focus
  - Healthy Harvest
  - No More Silence
  - Future of Health
Plan
- Health Challenges
  - Mindful Eating
  - Sugar Savvy
  - Move Your Body
  - Gut Health
  - Mood Foods
  - Align Your Spine
- Find Care
  - Primary Care
  - Mental Health
  - OB-GYN
  - Dermatologists
  - Neurologists
  - Cardiologists
  - Orthopedists
- Lifestyle Quizzes
  - Weight Management
  - Am I Depressed? A Quiz for Teens
  - Are You a Workaholic?
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Connect
- - Breast Cancer
  - Inflammatory Bowel Disease
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  - Migraine
  - Multiple Sclerosis
  - Psoriasis

Medically reviewed by Cynthia Cobb, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, FAANP — By Mary Sweeney, RN, BSN, CEN, ONN-CG-T on September 30, 2020

If you’ve ever used a laptop and balanced it on your legs, there’s a chance you’ve felt some heat coming from it.

Toasted skin syndrome happens when your legs are exposed to that heat for longer periods of time. It isn’t usually a serious condition but has been linked to cancer.

Toasted skin syndrome, also known as erythema ab igne, is a condition that causes skin discoloration, itching, and burning sensations.

This happens after your skin is exposed to a heat source repeatedly over a long period of time, but the heat is not hot enough to actually burn your skin.

When your skin is exposed to low-grade heat — 109.4 to 116.6°F (43 to 47°C) — it can cause a red, circular area of discoloration to the area that is exposed.

Scientists have compared these changes to those that occur when your skin is repeatedly exposed to ultraviolet rays, either from the sun or from indoor tanning booths.

Toasted skin syndrome can be caused by a variety of modern-day items, but it has been around for much longer than you might think.

When the syndrome was first discovered, items that caused this skin irritation included wood-burning stoves and working with hot coals.

Often, coal workers and chefs who had prolonged exposure to heat sources like these developed toasted skin syndrome on their faces.

Modern causes of toasted skin syndrome are a little different. Current common causes include:

Prolonged use of a laptop on the thighs. This is usually evident on the left thigh since most laptop batteries and vents are located on the left side of the device. With the recent increase in remote work, it’s likely that this will become more common.
Seat heaters in cars. There have been cases reported in people who use their seat heaters for 2 to 4 hours at a time.
Heating pads or hot water bottles. While these are helpful in easing pain in the abdomen, there have been reported cases of toasted skin syndrome after using them for long periods of time.
Space heaters. Historically, toasted skin syndrome was found in older people who spent much of their time in front of radiators or space heaters.

Erythema ab igne in children

Children may be at an increased risk of toasted skin syndrome since their skin is generally more sensitive than adults.

There have been reported cases in children who spend several hours per day playing video games on a laptop perched on their thighs.

Was this helpful?

The types of cancer that are associated with toasted skin syndrome include:

squamous cell carcinoma
Merkel cell carcinoma
cutaneous lymphoma

While cancer isn’t a common complication of toasted skin syndrome, it’s important to talk to your healthcare provider about any skin changes you notice.

While there’s not one specific treatment for toasted skin syndrome, there are things that you can do to help ease the symptoms. These include:

Removing the heat source. This is the best way to prevent any further irritation from happening. Once the heat source is removed, it’s likely that the discoloration will fade and any irritation will resolve. If the cause is a laptop, consider putting a laptop cover on your computer or relocating your workspace.
Topical medications. Topical medications like retinoids can help with the symptoms of toasted skin syndrome. A dermatologist can recommend one that is best for your particular situation.

Toasted skin syndrome is caused by prolonged heat exposure to your skin, usually from heat sources like laptop batteries, space heaters, or heating pads.

These heat sources can cause changes in your skin’s cells and fibers, which can then create a discoloration on your skin.

If you’re noticing any changes in your skin, especially after applying a heat source, it’s important to talk to a healthcare provider to rule out any more serious conditions.

Last medically reviewed on September 30, 2020

How we reviewed this article:

Arnold AW, et al. (2010). Laptop computer-induced erythema ab igne in a child and review of the literature. DOI:
10.1542/peds.2010-1390
Kesty K, et al. (2014). Erythema ab igne: Evolving technology, evolving presentation.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25419755/
Riahi RR, et al. (2012). Laptop-induced erythema ab igne: Report and review of literature.
escholarship.org/uc/item/4n04r793
Salgado F, et al. (2018). Erythema ab igne: New technology rebounding upon its users? DOI:
10.1111/ijd.13609

Share this article

Medically reviewed by Cynthia Cobb, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, FAANP — By Mary Sweeney, RN, BSN, CEN, ONN-CG-T on September 30, 2020

Treatment of burns with folk remedies: old recipes

Treatment of burns with folk remedies: old recipes – blog of the KAMA online store

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Treatment of burns with folk remedies

Since ancient times in Rus’, about one and a half hundred herbal preparations, 22 types of flowers, 65 types of roots, 10 types of bark, 35 types of seeds and 32 types of berries have been used to treat burn wounds. And even today, even having the opportunity to use modern dressings and remedies for burns, many people like to resort to traditional medicine recipes, believing that they have not lost their significance so far.

Herbs for the treatment of burns

Medicinal plants are the most commonly used in everyday life. For example, if a burn is received in the summer outside the city, a slurry of plantain leaves, or large burdock, or a handful of freshly picked rose petals should be applied to the burned skin. Villagers often recommend grated carrots, potatoes, boiled potato peels, pumpkin pulp, chopped rhubarb stalk mixed with honey on the burn. You can sprinkle the burned area with grated radish or its crushed seeds. Often use pumpkin juice, Kalanchoe and aloe. What lotions are not made of – from nettle infusion, decoction of clover flowers, wild rose, coltsfoot. Strong tea leaves are recommended to cool and pour over the burnt places, and then bandage them.

Folk recipes use a lot of herbs to treat burns

What oils and ointments are used to treat burns at home?

Often advice can be given to treat a burn with oil. Of course, the leader among oils for the treatment of burns is sea buckthorn. St. John’s wort and rosehip oils are also used, which include carotenoids, tocopherols and saturated fatty acids. There are home healers who prepare their own anti-burn ointments. For example, mixing spruce resin (resin), pork fat and beeswax. Many actively use beekeeping preparations – wax, honey, propolis, zabrus. And then there are patients who, for the treatment of burns, use substances intended for completely different purposes: talc, flour, toothpaste, coffee powder, ashes, and the like.

What is better – folk recipes or modern anti-burn remedies?

Of course, not all folk recipes can be unconditionally trusted. Quite often, after such self-treatment, a burn center doctor has to wash off, scrub and clean all these “natural medicines” from the surface of the wound in order to conduct a qualified examination of it and begin treatment. And this can be a very painful procedure. And yet, in most recipes they write that the most severe wounds are healed in three or four days of treatment with “grandmother’s remedies”. But even a highly qualified surgeon-combustiologist will not give such a forecast!

So the best thing you can do when you get burned is to simply cool the burned area with cool water for 20 minutes and then see a doctor. You should not wait for someone to knead overcooked buckwheat flour with water and make a compress from this dough, or offer you a solution of slaked lime as a lotion. Where do you find common ivy leaf or Veronica officinalis grass? Of course, we can not refuse the means donated to us by nature. They are especially effective as part of modern anti-burn medications. Currently, there are a large number of good dressings, including plasters for burns, let’s use them under the supervision of a doctor, and leave fairy tales to children!

Products mentioned in the article:

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Borisov Valery Sergeevich

Surgeon-combustiologist, candidate of medical sciences, senior researcher.

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Author:

Borisov Valeriy Sergeevich. Surgeon-combustiologist, candidate of medical sciences, senior researcher

sens – universal triple action antiseptic

Burns often knock a person out of the usual rhythm of life. In this article, we have collected five proven tips. They will help you not to get confused and quickly start healing burn wounds received after contact with hot surfaces, hot water, steam or aggressive chemicals.

A burn is an injury to the skin that is provoked by exposure to external factors: cold or high temperatures, chemicals, solar radiation. Separately, deep burn tissue injuries caused by radioactive radiation or a strong electric discharge are distinguished, but we will not consider them within the framework of our article. In such cases, a person always needs urgent hospitalization and round-the-clock medical supervision.

Experts distinguish four degrees of burns, but in domestic conditions the first two are the most common.

First degree. Keratinized epithelium – the upper part of the skin, takes the “blow”. Redness, slight swelling and pain appear, and after 2-4 days, most often everything goes away without a trace.

Second degree. Blisters appear. This takes an average of 2 weeks.

Third and fourth degree. Deep skin lesions requiring an ambulance call and transfer of the patient to a burn center.

The task of the patient is not to pierce the papules with liquid, and if they open, then try to protect the open burn wound from infections with the help of antiseptic preparations.

Advice one
Seek medical attention if the affected area is larger than five of your palms.

This rule applies even to first and second degree burn patients. By the way, there are areas of the body for which the degree of damage is not important and you need to go to the doctor in any case. This is:

person
hands
groin area

Tip Two
Applying Cold

Immediately after the burn, cool the skin with cold water and compresses for 15-20 minutes. So you can relieve pain and burning and at the same time prevent the spread of damage to other tissues.

Third tip
Forget about butter, sour cream or fat cream

Contrary to popular belief, these remedies do nothing to alleviate the patient’s condition. The fact is that oil, sour cream or petroleum jelly create an impenetrable film on the surface of the skin and aggravate the lesion. In case of serious damage, such a folk remedy will add unnecessary work to doctors – they will have to remove the fatty layer for a long time, and the patient will feel severe discomfort.

Fourth tip
Prevent wound infection

Treatment of wounds with special preparations is an important step in helping to speed up healing. In therapy, antimicrobial agents show themselves well, where one of the main roles is given to antiseptics. ² Unlike antibiotics, they are active against more pathogens and can be applied directly to the skin. Such a “blow” almost immediately suppresses the action of bacteria. Tip five
We are auditing the home first aid kit

Agree, get burned, climb into the locker for a remedy that will help alleviate the condition and not find it there – a rather sad scenario. Therefore, replenish your strategic stocks of medicines in time. So you can provide yourself and your loved ones prompt assistance with burns.

Checklist:

1. Sterile bandages.

Useful for creating drainage dressings, wound protection when going outside

2. Medical adhesive plaster.

It can be used to loosely fix the dressing without exerting unnecessary pressure on the wound.

How to get rid of heating pad burns: Toasted Skin Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

Toasted Skin Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

Erythema ab igne in children

How we reviewed this article:

Read this next

Toasted Skin Syndrome: Causes, Treatment, and More

Erythema ab igne in children

How we reviewed this article:

Read this next

Treatment of burns with folk remedies: old recipes

Herbs for the treatment of burns

What oils and ointments are used to treat burns at home?

What is better – folk recipes or modern anti-burn remedies?

Products mentioned in the article:

sens – universal triple action antiseptic

1. Sterile bandages.

2. Medical adhesive plaster.

3. Hypothermic (cooling) package.

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