When you hit your "funny bone," you're not hitting a bone at all. You are hitting the ulnar nerve as it passes around the back of the elbow.1 Because the ulnar nerve sits just on top of the hard elbow, and because most people don't have a lot of fatty cushion in that spot, the nerve is prone to be irritated. The elbow is actually the junction of three bones: the humerus (arm bone), the ulna and the radius (the forearm bones). The humerus bone has a groove on its inner aspect where the ulnar nerve tightly courses just behind the joint. This is the location where the ulnar nerve is most often irritated when the nerve is pinched against the end of the bone.
The best treatment is endoscopic therapy to achieve haemostasis. The patient is also given vitamin K to promote clotting while at the same time heparin is stopped.
