“How long does it take to recover from ulnar nerve surgery?”

It usually takes 6 weeks to recover from ulnar nerve surgery.

it can take 3-12 weeks.

Although your surgeon should advise you prior to surgery as to this question, it depends if you are having a nerve transposition or not. That means the nerve may be moved /re-positioned, which takes long to heal. I generally otherwise limit my patients who have simple ulnar nerve decompression for 3-4 weeks with that arm while the skin heals to avoid stretching and opening the wound. I might add 2-4 weeks to that number if there is a transposition. Regarding NERVE healing from being compressed: that could take much longer (the nerve fibers are known to regenerate at about 1 mm a day on average in a healthy person - so measure from your elbow to the tip of your pinky in millimeters and that is how many days).

Everyone is different, but most are back to usual activities in 2 – 3 months.