Hand surgeons are seeing a lot more avocado -related hand injuries. According to research , thousands of people slice their hands and fingers annually while cutting avocados primarily between April and July. Surgeons have seen these injuries so often that they have begun to call them “avocado hand” injuries, due to the injury typically occurring while cutting an avocado.
People lose their grip on the avocado and accidentally slice their palms or fingers, doctors have warned. When this happens, there’s a high likelihood of people accidentally severing their nerves or tendons. However, people also tend to stab themselves in the hand as they attempt to use the knife tip to remove the avocado pit.
In 2020, Emory University professor of orthopedic surgery Eric Wagner and his team published a study on the phenomenon, finding that more than 50,000 people in the United States went to emergency rooms seeking treatment for avocado-related knife wounds between 1998 and 2017. “I’ve treated people who’ve cut off a finger while slicing an avocado,” Dr Wagner explained to the Washington Post . “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.” Wagner adds that he believes that these injuries become more frequent during April through July due to people cooking and barbecuing outside for social occasions, which may lead to more carelessness. The hand surgeon noted.