tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2017 Issue 11

You Be the Coder: Focus Lap Pelvic Lymphadenectomy

Question: Which group of lymph nodes constitutes a "total pelvic lymphadenectomy" with reference to codes 38571 and 38572? If the surgeon doesn't remove all the lymph nodes but does more than a biopsy, do I need to resort to an unlisted code such as 38579? SuperCoder Subscriber Answer: The bilateral external iliac, internal iliac (hypogastric), and obturator nodes are all part of a pelvic lymphadenectomy. When considering codes, let's start by looking at the descriptors for the two procedure codes you mention: 38571 (Laparoscopy, surgical; with bilateral total pelvic lymphadenectomy) 38572 (Laparoscopy, surgical; with bilateral total pelvic lymphadenectomy and...

To read the full article, sign in and subscribe to tci General Surgery Coding Alert.


Leverage vital, to-the-point monthly guidance to boost your reporting accuracy and your coding know-how. We make it convenient for your team to stay informed, compliant, and profitable with a subscription to TCI’s General Surgery Coding Alert.

  • Current newsletters added each month
  • Fully searchable archives - over 2100 articles
  • ALL years/issues back to 1999 organized by year and issue
  • Codes mentioned in articles are linked to Code Information pages
  • Code Information pages link back to related articles
Access to this feature is available in the following products:
  • tci General Surgery Coding Alert +Archives

demo
request yours today
 subscribe
start today
 newsletter
free subscription

Thank you for choosing Find-A-Code, please Sign In to remove ads.