tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2013 Issue 8

Reader Question: Completion Colectomy Needs Details

Question: A patient had undergone an earlier extended left hemicolectomy with end colostomy due to Crohn’s disease. Now, due torecurrent bleeding, our surgeon performed a takedown of the colostomy, completion colectomy, and turnbull end ileostomy. The remaining colon consists of only the right colon. What is the correct coding for this second procedure?Mississippi Subscriber Answer: A possible code is 44144 (Colectomy, partial; with resection, with colostomy or ileostomy and creation of mucofistula). Typically, “completion colectomy” would be a total colectomy, but that’s apparently not the case here if most of the left colon had previously...

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.