AHA Coding Clinic® for HCPCS - 2020 Issue 2; Ask the Editor

Incision and drainage with debridement

A patient with a large abscess on his back presented with significant purulent drainage. An oval longitudinal oriented skin incision was made with sharp dissection. An upper cyst that had thick purulent material was communicating with a lower draining cyst. Sharp debridement was carried out using electrocautery to healthy fat tissue circumferentially. The abscess cavity and skin were passed off to pathology and the wound was irrigated and dressed. Pathology indicated a “ruptured epidermal inclusion cyst associated with abscess.” Would this procedure be coded as an incision and drainage or debridement or both? ...

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