What Causes Numbing, Tingling Sensation On Elbow?

Posted on Tue, 7 Oct 2014

Question: Yes my husband is 60 years of age and a little overweight and has had a numbing, tingling, like a bumping of the elbow sensation in his left arm for the last month and it comes and goes but especially at night it really bothers and hurts him. I just took his blood sugar, he ate about an hour ago and it is 287. He seems to have lost strength in his arm since this has been going on. What do we do? We don't have insurance and it is not getting better.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (32 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Dibetes with tennis elbow.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
Numbing and tingling sensation on the elbow is likely to be due related to ulnar nerve compression or inflammation. Most commonly it is caused by a tennis elbow or cubital tunnel syndrome.
You can help the improvement by-
1. Give adequate rest to the arm.
2. Apply cold therapy.
3. Get some anti-inflammatory medication prescribed from your orthopedician.
4. Immobilize the arm for a short period.
5. Soft tissue therapy can be used to break down adhesions that may be restricting the nerve.
6. Neural stretching exercises are helpful under the care of a physiotherapist.
Surgery might be needed in severe cases with persistent symptoms.
The blood glucose levels are raised and are likely to be due to diabetes. He needs proper investigations for diagnosis and treatment.
I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Praveen-Tayal

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (1 hour later)

Thank you for your answers and I do have other questions. His pain shoots from his shoulder to the tips of his hand. (Not the elbow) Now it could come from his neck, but he complains its his shoulder. Then, the pain shoots back to his shoulder area. But he explains the pain as hitting your elbow and having that numbing, tingling, which was every 10 minutes now every 5 minutes painfully, but bothering sensation but through his whole arm (left).
Now the 280 range of blood sugar can cause what? He has when going thru stress lately which I know can cause spiked blood sugar.
Thank you

Answered by Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Can be a frozen shoulder.

Detailed Answer:
Hello.
Thanks for writing again.
The pain now that you have described is more likely to be due to a frozen shoulder commonly associated with diabetes. Such high levels of blood glucose are not only due to stress. Cervical spondylosis and a nerve root compression at the level of cervical spine also needs to be ruled out after X-ray and MRI. Do consult an orthopedician for proper investigations so that specific treatment can be started.
Hope my answer is helpful.
Do accept my answer in case there are no further queries.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar