I am a 20yr old female who developed CuTS after being in a sling for 6wks for shoulder surgery. I have also had several ligament repairs and carpal tunnel release on the arm.
My symptoms are pain and tenderness around my elbow, lots of numbness and tingling down my arm into my fingers and pain in my fingers. I have had the symptoms for almost 4 months and have made postural adjustments, wear splints and gel pads, take neurontin, and have done 4wks of OT. I have also had a normal NCS/EMG.
My Dr is now ready to perform decompression. My OT advises I wait and give it more time and said the she sees a lot of people who end up worse off than they were before. I am so stuck in making the decision! I want to be rid of this pain and prevent any damage, but I don't want to be worse than I am now!
Any experiences with just decompression would really be apprecited and any advice!
Thank you
Madison

Are you getting any better at all?
If not ask your OT what you are waiting for?
Decompression? I would seriously read up about it first.
There's a lot of discussion about the different kinds of surgery.
Make sure Decompression is right for you.

Cynthia

Hi Madison, welcome to the site. Conservative treatment vs. surgery is a tough decision. A few things to consider:

* Studies show the worse your CuTS becomes, the less likely surgery will be completely successful.
* Conservative treatment is of course preferred over surgery because it's noninvasive and there's a risk with any major surgery.
* Conservative treatment doesn't always work, in which case, surgery is required.
* CuTS surgery has about 70% success rate.

I'm not a doctor, but the most common advice to this question seems to be:

Try conservative treatment for a few months and continue with it as long your CuTS continues to improve. If you are not improving or are getting worse, then do surgery.

Good luck with this important decision. Please stop back and let us know what you decide.

Thank you for the advice! It's a very difficult decision. It will be my 6th orthopedic surgery in less than 2 years.
Do you think that trying conservative treatment for almost 4 months with no long term improvement (therapy only slightly relieves symptoms for the day after)is a long enough amount of time? My OT's main concern seems to be with sensitivity to the elbow area post op. Even saying that she's seen people come out worse than they were pre-op. What was your experience with this?
Right now I'm leaning towards surgery. My main concern is going through it and my symptoms being worse than before.
Thanks so much! It's helpful to talk with people who have experienced this!
Madison

Just wanted to report back....I am 15 days post op from ulnar transposition surgery. I went in for decompression, but the Dr decided it would be better bc of where my bone was hitting the nerve to go ahead and move it. I am very happy with my decision to have surgery! I can already tell a difference with the pain, numbness and tingling. Still dealing with lots of swelling, bruising and operative pain, but really not as bad as I expected. The hardest part is holding myself back from overusing it and obeying the weight and movement restrictions! I am doing my best though bc I defiitely don't want to ruin my results!
Madison