If the numbness continues...

In Reply to: cubital tunnel release posted by Paul on March 14, 2004 at 16:30:35:

: Hi all a lil background I am a 47 yr old male. I was called to active duty with the US Army on Jan 17, 03. After about 2 months I began to have pain, and numbness from my elbow to my finger tips of my left arm. As time went on it grew
: increasingly painful and was unable to tie my boots or button a shirt. On July 31 04 i had
: cubital tunnel release performed by an Army
: Doc. Pre and Post emg testing were done, a 31%
: increase in nerve conduction was achived. The recovery has been longer than expected perhaps
: because the nerve had been compressed for such a long period of time. As of today March 14 04 still have slight numbness in my lil finger, along the length of the arm between the elbow and hand, and pain in the elbow. The 1st thing I noticed is that my strength begain to return quickly. I have spoken with several other soldiers that have had this same problem, It seems to me that if treated very early on recovery is much quicker.

ask them to check the neck area where the ulnar nerve root is. I had the same release done in Nov, and unfortunately I still have that numbness from elbow down to finger tip. After deciding the nerve from the elbow down is alive and responding, they did Xrays and ultimately an MRI of the neck (done through the Air Force) and then referred me to a neck/spine specialist in town. I have two disc missing in my neck and a third one on the way out. This is cauing nerve impingement which is what is causing the arm to still be numb. If you dont get better, ask them could it be a double crush syndrome. My elbow nerve was severely constricted too so I would have still had to have had that surgery regardless of the neck condition

Best of luck to you

kathy