AHA Coding Clinic® for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS - 2018 Issue 3; Ask the Editor

Decommissioning of Left Ventricular Assist Device with Exploration of Mediastinum

A patient with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, and end-stage systolic heart failure, is status post implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The patient’s heart recovered over time and she is now scheduled for elective decommissioning of the LVAD, by ligating the outflow-graft and cutting the driveline. During surgery, an incision was made down to the outflow graft of the pump, in the mediastinum underneath the sternum and the mediastinal area was explored. The outflow-graft was tied, pump support was reduced to no forward flow, and the outflow graft was ligated and shut down. Next, the driveline exit site was excised and the driveline was tunneled subcutaneously via the trunk and cut from the exit site. The cable and the exit site were closed. What is the correct code assignment for decommissioning of the LVAD by ligating the outflow-graft and cutting the driveline? ...

To read the full article, sign in and subscribe to AHA Coding Clinic® for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS .


  • The official AHA publication for ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS coding guidelines and advice
  • Current newsletters added each quarter
  • Full Archives - over 3100 articles
  • ALL years/issues back to 1984 organized by year and issue
  • Includes ICD-10-CM/PCS Articles since 2013
  • Fully searchable through Find-A-Code's Comprehensive Search
  • Codes mentioned in articles are linked to Code Information pages
  • Code Information pages link back to related articles
  • View all the articles associated with any code, right from the code page!
Access to this feature is available in the following products:
  • AHA's Coding Clinic® - ICD-10-CM/PCS +Archives

demo
request yours today
 subscribe
start today
 newsletter
free subscription

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