Treating Hand Injury with Avocado

Avocado hand refers to injury that may be incurred while cutting an avocado. Most people feel that cutting an avocado is not an easy task since it has very thick skin which can be quite difficult to crack. In addition, avocados have a hefty pit which is both difficult and time-consuming to remove. Recent reports indicate that surgeons are seeing more and more cases of patients with avocado hand injuries. Sometimes the injuries can be quite severe, damaging a nerve and even requiring surgery.

People don’t realize that the best time to cut an avocado is when its ripe. That means that your avocado should not be rock hard. In addition, you just don’t cut an avocado like you cut an apple. You have to lay it on its side and make small incisions into the skin. It’s best to move the knife around the pit so that you can push the edge of your knife right into it to be able to lift the pit out. The trick is to do it slowly and carefully in order to avoid any injury. You can also put the avocado on a damp cloth, hold it tight and cut the fruit in half around the pit. You should avoid whacking the pit but instead twist it out.

We have also encountered a few patients who have injured themselves while cutting an avocado. Although the patient’s I’ve seen did not have very severe injuries, there are surgeons and doctors who have encountered patients with significant bleeding and cut. In fact, we recommend that avocados should be sold with safety labels so that more people are aware of the possibility of an injury and why they need to be careful when cutting this fruit.

The point is that you need to be careful when cutting an avocado. The fruit is delicious and healthy so we do not want to discourage people from eating it but we do want them to avoid stiches, bleeding and loss of feeling in their fingers by cutting the fruit the wrong way.