It's the time of year when families and friends are gathering and celebrating the holidays. And usually, it happens in the room that tends to be the center of many gatherings — the kitchen.

It's also where accidents, often hand injuries, can happen, especially when alcohol is involved.

Dr. Sanj Kakar, a Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon, says he's seen many unfortunate hand injuries and he urges everyone to celebrate safely and use extra caution in the kitchen this Thanksgiving.

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Dr. Kakar can most often be found in surgery, helping patients with issues like carpal tunnel syndrome, thumb arthritis, wrist pain, and disorders of the hand and wrist.

But the holidays are the time of year he and his colleagues tend to see more emergencies due to kitchen accidents — especially from cleaning mishaps.

"Imagine the dishwasher and the empty dishwasher, and you have the plastic that holds the dishes, I've seen a patient fall over," he says explaining how the patient fell handsfirst onto metal racks.

"The actual rack itself had impaled her hand, and we had to take her to the operating room to pull that out," explains Dr. Kakar.

He says blenders can be a problem — both when in use and, believe it or not, when they are not in use.

"But with patients when they're trying to clean the blender because they think it's out of the electricity and so it's not going to spin, but they're trying to get their hand into there because the dishwasher doesn't clean it very well. And I've seen patients actually cut the tip of the finger off, even with the blender," says Dr. Kakar. 

And be careful when cleaning wine glasses – glass cuts can be difficult.

"While we're in the kitchen, we want to enjoy food, but it can be a dangerous place," Dr. Kakar says.

So be careful, have patience and enjoy your time in the kitchen injury-free.

Related posts:

• Mayo Clinic Minute: Sharpen your knife skills to avoid injury
• Mayo Clinic Minute: Be careful when carving on Thanksgiving

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