“Does ulnar nerve surgery work?”
I am a 34 year old male. I want to know if ulnar nerve surgery works?
10 Answers
Yes decompressing the ulnar nerve is successful
Yes, for tardy nerve palsy.
If you have issues that fit with it, yes, it often does. However, it can be slow. If you are just suffering loss of sensation, but you are not weak in your hand, this should improve quickly. Weakness caused by compression takes a long time to improve (6-12 months) and may not be complete.
It depends entirely on what you are having surgery on your ulnar nerve. If you have pain or tingling in your pinky and ring finger, or weakness of your hand, and it is because of conduction loss across the elbow due to entrapment of the ulnar nerve, then yes, decompression of the nerve at the elbow works really well. There are no activity restrictions after surgery, so people have full use of their arm immediately after surgery, and can go back to work the next day. Whether your symptoms go away or not depends entirely on how damaged the nerve was before surgery. The more severe, the conduction loss, and the longer the symptoms have gone on, the less likely you are to feel better after surgery, and the longer it will take to feel better.
Yes it does! But for the right patient. The clinical symptoms and EMG must fit in order to be a good candidate. Pain in the elbow and forearm with numbness and tingling in the last 2-3 digits of the hand are typical symptoms along with a positive EMG nerve conduction study are the best candidates for surgery.
Ulnar nerve surgery to correct so-called cubital tunnel syndrome does work. A recent study compared various surgical methods and concluded that simple decompression or opening of the cubital tunnel to decompress the ulnar nerve was the most successful method whether done by a more usual open surgical approach or by an endoscopic approach. It was also associated with the fewest complications.
If you failed other treatments, and the symptoms are significant, the surgical results are excellent. Nothing is 100% or guaranteed, of course.
Yes most of the time it works well
Yes, an ulnar nerve decompression can treat ulnar nerve entrapment effectively.
Yes in most cases it does work but with any surgery there are risks
