London, Dec 8 (ANI): While Nintendo Wii is known for keeping players in shape, the game console can leave people with fractured limbs, damaged knees and painful tendonitis, surgeons have warned.

The researchers have also found evidence of head cuts, which required stitches caused by flying Wii controls.The Wii has been praised for encouraging players to be more active by mimicking the actions involved in many sports.

In fact, earlier this year a study suggested that the machines could be helpful for preventing weight gain.

But a new editorial has pinpointed the range of injuries that players have sustained.

“Gaming is certainly not without its dangers and as the technology has evolved, those dangers seem to become ever more tangible,” the Telegraph quoted Thomas Fysh and John Thompson from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, as saying.

“Upon the advent of the Wii, Playstation thumb and Nintendintis were eclipsed by altogether different problems. Wii injury is so common, in fact, that several websites and blogs have been set up in its honour,” they added.

Last year researchers at Leeds Teaching Hospital identified an injury they called “Wii knee”.

It came after a warning by osteopaths that they saw an increase in patients with back pain after the Christmas period, a trend they blamed on fathers trying to keep up with their children on the machines.

Reports of other Wii injuries have included painful swelling of tendons triggered by playing tennis on the machine.

But researchers still stand by the positive aspects that they believe playing the Wii has on health.

“Wii sports might have caused a few brow raising and unusual injuries but is hardly reducing our nation’s youth to helpless decrepitude,” they wrote.

A spokesman for Nintendo UK said: “We are committed to the safety and well being of all our customers and users and we always include comprehensive health and safety guidelines with all our products. Provided these are followed correctly, anyone should be able to enjoy their Nintendo product safely.”

The study has been published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. (ANI)