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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffIntense sun exposure that results in sunburn increases your risk of certain complications and related skin diseases. These include infection, premature aging of your skin and skin cancer.
Infection
Ruptured blisters make you more susceptible to bacterial infection. See your doctor if you notice signs or symptoms of infection, which include pain, redness, swelling or oozing.
Photoaging
Sun exposure and repeated sunburns accelerate the aging process of skin, making you appear older than you are. Skin changes caused by the sun are called photoaging. The results of photoaging include:
- Weakening of connective tissues, which reduces the skin's strength and elasticity
- Thinner, more translucent-looking skin
- Deep wrinkles
- Dry, rough skin
- Fine red veins on your cheeks, nose and ears
- Freckles, mostly on your face and shoulders
- Large brown lesions (macules) on your face, back of hands, arms, chest and upper back (solar lentigines, or liver spots)
- White macules on the lower legs and arms
Actinic keratoses
Also known as solar keratoses, actinic keratoses appear as rough, scaly areas in sun-exposed areas. They vary in color from whitish, pink or flesh-colored to brown-to-dark-brown patches. They're most commonly found on the face, ears, lower arms and backs of the hands of fair-skinned people whose skin has been damaged by the sun. Actinic keratoses are considered precancerous, as many evolve into skin cancer.
Skin cancer
Sun exposure that's intense enough to cause sunburn can also damage the DNA of skin cells. This damage sometimes leads to skin cancer. Skin cancer develops mainly on areas of skin exposed most to sunlight, including your scalp, face, lips, ears, neck, chest, arms and hands, and on the legs in women.
Some types of skin cancer appear as a small growth or as a sore that bleeds, crusts over, heals and then reopens. In the case of melanoma, an existing mole may change or a new, suspicious-looking mole may develop. Other types of melanoma develop in areas of long-term sun exposure and start as dark flat spots that slowly darken and enlarge, known as lentigo maligna.
See your doctor if you notice a new skin growth, a bothersome change in your skin, a change in the appearance or texture of a mole, or a sore that doesn't heal.
Eye damage
The sun can also burn your eyes. UV light damages the retina, a thin layer of tissue that lines the back inner wall of your eyeball. Burning your eyes can also damage the lens, a clear structure inside your eye that changes shape to help focus objects. This can lead to progressive clouding of the lens (cataracts).
- Facts about sunscreen. American Academy of Dermatology. http://www.aad.org/media/background/factsheets/fact_sunscreen.htm. Accessed March 2, 2009.
- Sun and your skin. American Academy of Dermatology. http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/sun_sun.html. Accessed March 2, 2009.
- Habif TP. Light-related diseases and disorders of pigmentation. In: Habif TP. Clinical Dermatology: A Color Guide to Diagnosis and Therapy. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/123287021-7/0/1195/129.html?tocnode=51442195&fromURL=129.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-01319-8..50021-2_2348. Accessed March 2, 2009.
- Wolf K, et al. Photosensitivity, photo-induced disorders and disorders by ionizing radiation. In: Wolf K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Color Atlas & Synopsis of Clinical Dermatology, 5th ed. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc; 2005. http://www.accessmedicine.com. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Mahoney KR (expert opinion). Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md. Feb. 4, 2009.
- Internal analgesic, antipyretic and antirheumatic drug products for over-the-counter human use: Tentative final monograph. Federal Register.1998;53:46204.
- Parenting corner Q&A: Sun safety. American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_SunSafety.htm. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Rouhani P, et al. Melanoma in Hispanic and black Americans. Cancer Control. 2008;15:248.
- Skin cancer: Questions and answers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/chooseyourcover/qanda.htm. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Brice S, et al. Sunburn. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 4, 2009.
- Gibson LE (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 20, 2009.
