When a patient comes to us for carpal tunnel or cubital tunnel, then we look at the symptoms that they're having. Normally with cubital tunnel they have numbness and tingling in the little finger and the ring finger. So we have to prevent them from bending their elbow unnecessarily. We tell them not to bend their arms when they talk on the phone, we talk about not resting on their elbows, and often they are waking up at night with symptoms. So we make them a splint that blocks their elbow flexion, so it prevents their symptoms and lets the nerve rest.
When a patient has carpal tunnel syndrome, then that is at the wrist and they are compressing the nerve at the wrist level. We have to stop them from flexing the wrist when they sleep at night, so we make them a wrist splint that allows that nerve to rest.
