Posts above make good points. Generally speaking, you want to exhaust conservative treatments before you go under the knife. Surgery of any kind to any body part comes with risks. There is no eliminating that. Surgeons are the first to tell you that. But there's another angle to look at, regarding risk.

I would think that the longer you allow a nerve to be subject to compression, the greater the potential for the nerve to become permanently damaged. There can be inflammatory processes going on affecting the ulner nerve and the ligaments/tendons in the elbow that cause pathological changes to the area. Surgeons think about the risks of postponing surgery.

I've heard that surgeons always want to cut, and I used to believe that. Then I got referred to surgeons. To my surprise they were more conservative than the doctors who referred me, in wanting to try other measures before resorting to surgery. My primary care doctor was just about sure that I needed surgery on my heel for Achilles tendonitis. I had been limping for a couple of months. Well, the surgeon put me on Indocin, and the problem went completely away. Then I stopped needing the Indocin and the problem hasn't come back. Xrays show there is permanent damage in the area, but I have no symptoms now, so the surgeon sees no reason to cut. So surgeons aren't as "knife-happy" as I used to think. For another problem in my foot another surgeon explained that a surgical procedure could possibly help. But, he said, there was a good chance that surgery would not help at all, or might even make the problem worse. He sounded real unenthused about doing the surgery, so I haven't gone ahead with it. Most of the time my foot issue doesn't stop me doing normal things.

What's pivotal, IMO, is the integrity of the surgeon. Is he/she recognizing and acknowledging the downsides of the surgery? Also, how experienced is the surgeon in doing this procedure? Has he/she done this procedure hundreds of time? If he has, he's had some outcomes that weren't as good as hoped for. I would flat out ask about that: " So, Dr. X, tell me about some things you've seen go wrong with this surgery." If he evades that question, then I wouldn't trust him.