April 16, 2015
Mark Lennihan/AP
A detail from the online game "Candy Crush Saga" is shown on a computer screen.
A California man tore a tendon in his thumb after playing the popular puzzle game "Candy Crush Saga" on his smartphone all day for several weeks, Live Science reports.
According to a report of the case, the 29-year-old man told doctors he had played the game all day for six to eight weeks, using his left hand to play while he used his right hand for other things.
"Playing was a kind of secondary thing, but it was constantly on," the man was quoted as saying in the case report.
After examining the man and performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on his hand, doctors determined that the man had ruptured a tendon involved in moving the thumb, and they said he needed surgery to repair the tendon.
His injury is particularly noteworthy because such injuries are typically painful, but the man appeared to feel no pain.
The doctors who treated him believes the case indicates that video games may numb people's pain and contribute to game addiction.
"We need to be aware that certain video games can act like digital painkillers," Dr. Andrew Doan, a co-author of the case report and head of addictions research at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, told Live Science. "We have to be very cognizant that that can be abused."
Read more from Live Science.
