tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2017 Issue 3

You Be the Coder: Spotlight Wound Size for Graft Code

Question: Our surgeon excised a 4.5 cm melanoma with a 2.5 cm margin from a patient’s left arm. The surgeon then applied a 40 sq cm skin substitute graft with sutures, and dressed the area. Should we code this as 15271 and +15272 based on the graft size? Iowa Subscriber Answer: No, you should not report these graft codes based on the graft size, but instead, you should base your code selection on the wound size. In this case, you should report 15271 (Application of skin substitute graft to trunk, arms, legs, total wound surface area...

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