Fast track your treatment
To book an appointment or speak with one of our friendly team, please get in touch using the options below
Welcome to the Circle Health Group website. We've changed our name from BMI Healthcare. Just as before, we have thousands of specialists offering expert healthcare. Click here to find a specialist or a hospital near you.
Find out how cubital tunnel syndrome can be treated and what to expect from the recovery
If the nerve is compressed in this tunnel or anywhere in this area, it may produce loss of sensation in part of the hand (especially the little and ring fingers) and some loss of the small, precise muscles in the hand.
Early symptoms include tingling in the little and ring fingers, especially when the elbow is bent or is leaned upon. Later symptoms may include clumsiness of the hand or wasting of the muscles in the hand.
Cubital tunnel surgery can be, and is usually, performed under regional anaesthesia - an injection of local anaesthetic in the neck or armpit, numbs the entire limb, while the patient is awake. This surgery is performed as an outpatient.
An incision is made on the inside of the elbow and the tunnel and various other points of compression are released, so as to relax all pressure on the nerve. Occasionally a small area of bone requires removal so as to stop the nerve angling around a sharp point.
The sutures are removed at two weeks after which the hand and arm can be used normally.
Because the compression of the nerve is at some distance from its target, the hand, it takes several weeks or months for the full effect of the decompression to develop. Symptoms usually improve quite rapidly after release but continue to improve for weeks or month.
Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon
MB ChB, FRCSEd(Tr & Orth)
Albyn Hospital
Trauma & Orthopaedic Consultant
MBBS, BSc, MSc Sports & Exercise Medicine, Diploma in Medical Education, FRCS (Tr & Orth)
Bishops Wood Hospital 1 more The Clementine Churchill Hospital
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
FRCS(Tr&orth), MBBS
Woodlands Hospital
Consultant Upper Limb Orthopaedic Surgeon
MBBS BSc (Hons) FRCS (Tr & Orth) (Eng)
The Cavell Hospital 1 more The Kings Oak Hospital
Consultant Orthopaedic & Hand Surgeon
MBBS (Lond), Dip (T and O), FRCS (Trauma and Orthopaedics)
The Chaucer Hospital
Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon
MBBS, MS(Ortho), MRCSEd, MSc (Evidence Based Orthopaedics), MCh (Orthopaedics), FRCS (Trauma and Orthopaedics)
The Blackheath Hospital 1 more Chelsfield Park Hospital