The Ulna nerve is the Funny Bone nerve – when you bash your elbow and get pins and needles and numbness down the arm and in the hand, it is the Ulna nerve that has been injured. Normally those symptoms will settle after a few minutes and everything gets back to normal.
However the nerve can be squeezed in a more chronic way causing the same symptoms but for longer and longer periods until it can become permanent.
I think I get that but only at night and only sometimes: my little finger and that side of my hand go to sleep. Should I be worried?
The Ulna nerve supplies feeling to the little finger and the outside of the ring finger so that is certainly the right area to be caused by the nerve being squeezed. It nearly always gets squeezed at the elbow where it has to go round the corner there on the inside so when the elbow is fully bent it can put quite a pull or squeeze on the nerve.
If you just get it at night and only occasionally then it is really nothing to worry about and the usual cause is the posture you adopt when you are asleep. If you sleep with your elbow bent up tightly then that can be the reason.
What can I do about it?
It is easy for me to say but a lot harder for you to do but simply changing the position you sleep in will often do the trick. Sometimes a new mattress or changing your pillows can help as well.
You should also be wary of other activities when the elbow is very bent such as being on the phone: get a headset if you have to be on the phone for long periods and it causes tingling in the hand.
I am now getting it more and more often and for longer and longer periods during the day and with most activities. Its not a massive problem but it is annoying. Can you do anything for that?
It sounds like the nerve is getting increasingly irritated, inflamed and compressed. The first thing to do is confirm that it is being squeezed at the elbow because there are some other causes; there maybe something in your system that upsets nerves such as diabetes or vitamin deficiencies and the nerve can also be squeezed up in the neck.
So we will do a special test called a Nerve Conduction Test (NCT) to see where the squeeze is and how bad it is.
And if that proves it is the elbow what then?
Then it is an operation (see Ulna Nerve Transposition) to take the pressure off the nerve and allow it to recover back to normal and get rid of that annoying tingling and pain.
It is also important to take the pressure off the nerve especially once the symptoms become permanent because then it can start to effect the muscles of the outside of the hand which will, eventually, start to ‘claw’ with the little and ring fingers curling down into the palm.
So, tingling, numbness and sometimes pain on the outside of the hand is usually caused by the Ulna nerve being compressed as it goes round the elbow. If it only happens at night then try changing the way you sleep. If it happens more frequently during the day or becomes permanent then you need to be investigated and will probably need surgery. Don’t leave it too long because the nerve can become permanently damaged
