Ulnar Nerve Entrapment:

[Montague]

Does/has anyone dealt with this?

I noticed it for the first time last Saturday afternoon. It occurred after taking a 2½ hour test in front of a computer. I experienced substantial tingling/numbness in my entire little finger and the medial aspect of my ring finger, which are classic indications for UNE.
The feeling is similar to when your hand or foot falls asleep, but I knew that wasn’t what happened when normal feeling did not return in a timely manner. By 9:30 that night, I was becoming a little concerned.

I was curious how/why I’d suddenly developed it, and a little research revealed that one of the primary causes of mild UNE is resting the side of your head/face on your hand with your elbow supported on the table top.
This apparently compresses and irritates the ulnar nerve in the elbow, thus causing the sensations in the ulnar digits.

The numbness finally began to cease the following afternoon. By night, it was almost completely gone. I did not experience another episode until in the gym today. I noticed after my second exercise for chest faint traces of the tingling. It did not last for more than several minutes, but it got me thinking what else may aggravate that nerve and cause symptoms.

Any input?

[Princess L]

Yes, I've had it, but for the life of me I don't recall the exact remedy.  Seems to me ultimately my chiro (seeing him for a diff reason) did some trigger point or something similar.  I DO however recall it that session hurting like a sonofabitch!

[Montague]

Yes, I've had it, but for the life of me I don't recall the exact remedy.  Seems to me ultimately my chiro (seeing him for a diff reason) did some trigger point or something similar.  I DO however recall it that session hurting like a sonofabitch!

My chiro performed a cubital adjustment on me once. I haven't asked for another since!!

There are specific stretching exercises you can do in the acute/minor stage of UNE. Actually, there aren't too many different ways to stretch that region, and these stretches are pretty much the same ones you often perform for condylar tendons when treating tendonitits.

NSAID's can also be effective for milder cases.

I believe the cause of the condition has a major influence over the severity of symptoms. Static elbow pressure such as what happened to me seems to present the mildest and most easily treatable symptoms. UNE resulting from strenuous overuse or inflicted trauma tends to require more drastic means to correct - oftentimes including surgical relocation of the nerve from the affected area. The surgery is only about 76% effective.