The injury usually occurs when a person holds an avocado in one hand and wields a sharp knife in the other. When the knife slips or the person loses grip on the avocado while cutting it, the knife may slice the palm or fingers. It is not uncommon for nerves and tendons to be severed. In some cases, people stab themselves in the hand using the tip of a knife to remove the core.
“I’ve treated people who had cut their finger cutting an avocado,” said Eric Wagner, a hand surgeon and associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Emory University in Atlanta. “Cutting an avocado seems so harmless, but we have seen some very serious injuries. By far, most of the injuries I have seen come from lawyers.
Wagner and his colleagues encountered so many patients requiring hand surgery due to avocado-related knife injuries that they published a study in 2020 examining the prevalence of the phenomenon nationwide. They found that between 1998 and 2017, more than 50,000 people in the United States went to emergency rooms seeking treatment for avocado-related problems. knife wounds.
Most strikingly, the incidence of these injuries has increased sharply over time. During the four-year period from 1998 to 2002, only 3,143 cases requiring emergency room visits were reported. But between 2013 and 2017, this rate increased significantly, with 27,059 emergency cases reported, a nine-fold increase. Wagner said the rate of these injuries appears to be accelerating as he has seen even more cases in the past five years than before.
The growing popularity of avocados
The increase in injuries closely reflects the growing popularity of lawyers. According to the federal government, the average American consumed about 1.5 pounds of avocados per year in 1989, but by 2017, average consumption had climbed to about 7.5 pounds of avocados per year.
In a study published in the American Journal of Health Behavior, researchers found that about 2 percent of all consumer product-related injuries reported to the federal government came from cutting avocados.
“That doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s 1 in 50 knife injuries,” said Matthew E. Rossheim, lead author of the study and associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Health Sciences. from the University of North Texas. Center in Fort Worth. “It is shocking how many emergency room visits are linked to injuries from cut avocado hands.”
Nor is the lawyer’s hand a uniquely American phenomenon. Studies have documented cases in a number of other countries, including England, Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland.
In the United States, Wagner and colleagues found that most injuries occurred in women aged 23 to 39 and that the injuries were usually to the left hand, probably because that was the hand they were using to hold the lawyer. by cutting it. About half of those injured had injuries to their palms. The other half had lacerations on their fingers, most often on the index finger (34 percent of cases), followed by the thumb (19 percent of cases) or the ring finger (17 percent of cases).
Most of the injuries occurred on weekends from April to July. Wagner said he suspects this is because people are cooking, barbecuing and gathering outdoors more frequently for social occasions when the weather warms up, and people might end up being a little less cautious than usual.
“A lot of people I see were at a family event when this happened and alcohol was involved,” he said.
How to open a lawyer safely
Avocados are full of fiber, healthy fats, potassium and other vitamins and minerals. It’s one of the most nutritious fruits you can eat (yes, they’re technically fruits). But opening them shouldn’t mean risking a trip to the emergency room. So, here’s how to open a lawyer safely:
- Place the avocado on a cutting board using your non-dominant hand to hold it in place.
- With your dominant hand, hold a knife parallel to the cutting board and carefully cut the avocado in half lengthwise around the seed, rotating the fruit around the knife.
- Hold the avocado in your hands and use a twisting motion to separate the two halves.
- Hold the half that contains the core in your non-dominant hand. Squeeze it gently to help separate the pit from the flesh and use a spoon to remove it with your other hand. Or try the “pop” method: place both thumbs on the skin side, just behind the pit, and push the pit away from you.
- Place half of the avocado, skin side down. on the cutting board. Hold the side of the avocado with one hand and cut from top to bottom, making sure the knife blade is perpendicular to the cutting board. Now repeat with the other half of the avocado.
- Use a spoon or your fingers to peel the skin from each quarter of the avocado. (If your avocado is ripe enough, you can go straight from pitting to peeling with your fingers or a spoon.)
If you want to be especially safe, consider using a butter knife instead of a sharp knife. But most importantly, don’t cut your avocados while holding them in the palm of your hand, said Wagner, the hand surgeon at Emory.
“It makes no sense because if the knife slips, your thumb or index finger will be cut off,” he said.
Second, never forget to cut far of your hand or fingers so they are not in the path of the blade if the knife or avocado slips.
Wagner said he loves making homemade guacamole, but seeing so many injuries has made him extra careful in how he cuts avocados. “It definitely takes me a little longer to cut an avocado than it did before I became a surgeon,” he said.
Wagner said his wife, who is an orthopedic surgeon, has also changed his approach.
“I’ve told her so many horror stories about people cutting their fingers that she’s very careful,” he added.
Do you have a question about healthy eating? EatingLab@washpost.com and we may answer your question in a future column.