The burns caused by the heat rays of the atomic bomb often swelled, and became the disease called keloid among many survivors. Keloid appeared around the scars of the burns which seemed to have healed. Keloid was accompanied by pain and itching even after years had passed. Depending on the place of the keloid, some victims often could not move their bodies. Even if plastic surgery was performed to remove the keloid scars, keloid would recur as its characteristic and the scars would swell in the same way again.
Characteristics of the atomic bomb keloid are so different from those of ordinary keloid, that many people suspect that radiation may be involved in the formation of the keloid scar tissue, however, the causal relations remain unclear.
