PS3 bad for your hands?

Caution Sony PlayStation gamers:  Too much gaming could lead to a unique skin disorder that affects gamers who hold the controller with too tight of a grip.

The "PlayStation palmar hidradentitis" skin disorder can create painful lesions on the palms, researchers said in the British Journal of Dermatology.  Specifically, a 12-year-old girl visited a Geneva hospital, with reports showing she had painful lesions on her hands that developed a month earlier -- she had no other lesions on her body.

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Doctors learned she played her PlayStation a few hours per day days before the lesions suddenly appeared.  After not playing for 10 days, she has recovered and the lesions are now gone.

"The tight and continuous grasping of the hand-grips together with repeated pushing of the buttons produce minor but continuous trauma to the (palm) surfaces," University Hospitals and Medical School of Geneva researcher Vincent Piguet said.

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Although it seems this news could be troubling, Sony not surprisingly fired back at the study.

"As with any leisure pursuit there are possible consequences of not following common sense, health advice and guidelines, as can be found within our instruction manuals," a Sony spokesperson told Reuters.  "We would not wish to belittle this research and we will study the findings with interest, but this is the first time we have ever heard of a complaint of this nature."

There has been growing concern regarding gaming and possible physical ailments, with multiple platforms related to health risks.  As an example, Nintendo Wii players reportedly developed a case of "Wii knee," which was discovered late last year when parents hurt themselves playing on the Wii with their kids.

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Doctors warn the biggest medical threat gamers have to worry about is fatigue and tendinitis, though these rarer specialty medical conditions are possible.

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