How to avoid ‘Avocado hand’ this summer — a surprisingly common and serious injury
You’ll want to cut this part from the guacamole recipe.
Cutting avocados accounts for about 1 in every 50 knife injuries in America, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
“It’s shocking how many ER department visits are related to avocado hand-cutting injuries,” Matthew E. Rossheim, the lead author of the study and an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, told The Washington Post.
Women between the ages of 23 and 39 are the most likely to get injured this way, the study found.
The injury is also most likely to happen to the left hand on weekends from April through July, the research showed, as you’re using your right hand to cut into the sought-after superfood to make a bowl of guacamole for your outdoor BBQ.
“Of people who cut tendons and nerves in their hands, we usually guess that it’s an avocado injury,” Dr. Scott Wolfe, Hospital for Special Surgery hand and upper extremity surgeon, told CBS New York.
“It’s so common I would say that nine out of 10 are avocado injuries.”
To avoid this shockingly common laceration, experts warn those in the kitchen to aim the sharp edge of a knife — or the point of the knife — away from your hand.
Wolfe recommends holding the avocado down on a cutting board with your less dexterous hand and slicing into the fruit with your dominant hand, cutting all around the fruit at the equator, then rolling it halfway over and cutting it again.
“The hand is an incredibly complex organ with lots of tendons and nerves in a very small space,” Dr. Wolfe said. “It’s very easy to do a lot of damage there.”
The recent study from the University of North Texas found that about half of the people who wounded themselves reported injuries to their palms, while the other half cut their fingers — most commonly their index finger (34 percent of cases), followed by their thumb (19 percent of cases) or ring finger (17 percent of cases).
In some cases, it can be even worse than a simple cut.
“I’ve treated people who’ve cut off a finger while slicing an avocado,” said Eric Wagner, a hand surgeon and associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Emory University in Atlanta, told WaPo.
“Cutting an avocado seems so harmless, but we’ve seen some pretty bad injuries from it. By far and away the most injuries I’ve seen are from avocado injuries.”
