We've all been there when we've battled to cut an avocado. It's either too ripe or too hard.
It usually ends with the avocado going flying or you cutting your hand. Well, at least it has for a lot of people and that's where the term 'Avocado Hand' comes from.
It's being used by plastic surgeons following a rise in hand injuries due to avocados.
A new report from the
Irish Medical Journal has said that 'Avocado Hand' injuries are on the rise in Ireland. People are unable to safely cut the avocado and suffer serious injuries as a result. One particular case being highlighted is of a 32-year-old woman who sustained a significant hand injury while cutting an avocado recently.
She presented herself at Beaumont hospital with the knife still impaled through her finger as well as the avocado.
The IMJ has issued the report, along with graphic images, to highlight the risk involved with preparing avocados incorrectly.
A few months ago a similar report was published in
The Irish Times where Simon Eccles, of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said that he treated up to four patients each week from said injury.
He now believes that avocados should come with a warning, to combat the rise of injuries, saying:
"People do not anticipate that the avocados they buy can be very ripe and there is minimal understanding of how to handle them.
We don’t want to put people off the fruit but I think warning labels are an effective way of dealing with this."
He's even gone so far as to give an example of the warning that could be included, adding:
"It needs to be recognisable. Perhaps we could have a cartoon picture of an avocado with a knife, and a big red cross going through it?"
