AHA Coding Clinic® for ICD-9 - 2012 Issue 3; Ask the Editor

Counting Total Number of Vascular Stents

A patient diagnosed with inferolateral wall ischemia was sent to the cardiac catheterization laboratory. An angioplasty was performed and the proximal left anterior descending (LAD) branch was stented with a drug-eluting stent. The guidewire was removed. Then, another drug eluting stent was deployed in the distal LAD into the posterior descending branch. The wires were removed and provider documentation indicates “upon removal, it was noted that the previously placed stent was bound to one of the guidewires, or in other words, it was actually pulled out of the artery.” A second drug-eluting stent was then deployed in the distal right coronary artery into the proximal posterior descending branch exactly as the first one had been deployed. What codes are assigned for the number of stents and number of vessels treated?  ...

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