AHA Coding Clinic® for HCPCS - 2023 Issue 3; Ask the Editor

Placement of an external tissue expander

A patient with a large wound (10 x 25 cm) over the right calf was brought to the operating room for washout and placement of an external tissue expander due to inability to close the wound previously. The wound was thoroughly irrigated followed by minor debridement. The skin edge was superficially undermined, posteriorly, with additional undermining medially superficially leaving sufficient uninterrupted skin bridge over the anterior tibia. An occlusive dressing was placed under the skin edges in preparation for placement of the external tissue expander. Due to the size of the wound, two automatic controlled force external tissue expander devices were placed. Bandages were applied.In this case, wound closure/repair codes do not seem appropriate since the tissue expander achieves wound approximation over time and there is no documentation of a definitive closure. Since the anchors were placed into the skin and subcutaneous tissue, is CPT code 11960, Insertion of tissue expander(s) for other than breast, including subsequent expansion, reported for placement of the external tissue expanders? How is placement of the external tissue expanders reported? ...

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