Expect about 3 months of hard work after elbow release surgery: movement starts within 1 to 2 days, and the daily range work and splinting in the first 6 weeks decide how much of the operating-room range you keep.
Desk work in 1 to 2 weeks after a simple cubital tunnel release, 2 to 4 after a transposition. Pain goes first, tingling next, numbness over months, strength last and least reliably.
A repaired nerve in the hand regrows at about a millimeter a day, and the final result takes 12 to 24 months to judge. Here’s the tingling sign you can track monthly at home, and the sensory re-education that decides how usable the hand ends up.
Radial tunnel syndrome is a squeezed nerve below the outer elbow that causes deep forearm aching without numbness, tender four finger-widths below the bony point. Most cases settle in 3 to 6 months with load changes, a night splint and nerve gliding.
Pronator teres syndrome is the median nerve squeezed in the upper forearm instead of the wrist: same tingling fingers, but the palm goes numb too and it rarely wakes you. Most cases settle in 6 to 12 weeks with load change, a night splint and nerve glides.
If you suddenly can’t make a round OK sign, or can’t lift your fingers at the knuckles, and nothing is numb, think AIN or PIN palsy. Get assessed within days; many recover over 6 to 18 months, and your job meanwhile is keeping every joint moving.
Numb hands on the bike are a nerve squashed at the wrist: ring and little finger is the ulnar nerve (handlebar palsy), thumb to middle finger is carpal tunnel. Change hand position every 10 to 15 minutes, get weight off your hands, and treat numbness that lingers after the ride as a deadline.
A hook of hamate fracture causes deep heel-of-palm pain on the little-finger side after a golf, bat or racquet impact, and routine X-rays often miss it. A CT settles it; most late-found cases do well with removal of the hook and a return to sport around 6 to 8 weeks.
Guyon’s canal syndrome is the ulnar nerve squeezed at the wrist: numb ring and little fingers with a normal back of the hand. Pressure cases usually settle in 6 to 12 weeks once the load comes off; a cyst or hamate fracture needs finding and usually surgery.
CRPS is pain that escalates after a hand or wrist injury instead of settling, with swelling, color and temperature changes and fast-building stiffness. It’s real, most people improve over months, and the hand has to keep moving while it hurts.