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Doctors are warning that laptop computers may inflict a burn even through clothed skin, after the bizarre case of a Swedish scientist who scorched his penis and testicles while writing a report in his armchair.

The unnamed 50-year-old father of two had balanced the computer on his lap while he wrote the report at home, taking about an hour to do it, according to a letter published in next Saturday's issue of the British medical weekly The Lancet.

The following day, he started to develop painful blisters on his foreskin and scrotum, which became infected but eventually cleared up without the need for antibiotics.

Laptop manuals usually advise users not to use the computer while its base is resting directly on exposed skin, as heat can build up if the device is left on for a long time.

In this case, however, the patient had been wearing trousers and underpants.

The tale "should be taken as a serious warning against use of a laptop computer, in a literal sense," said the letter's author, Claes-Goran Ostenson of the department of molecular medicine at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.   (AFP)