CPT Knowledgebase - Apr 7, 2026

When excising a preauricular sinus cyst, if the provider or pathology report confirms the presence of branchial remnants, would it be appropriate to report code 42810 or 42815, depending on the depth and complexity of the excision? Or are these codes only applicable to Type II and Type III branchial cleft cysts located in the lateral neck?

To view the Official AMA answer and 1000s more like this:

CPT® Knowledge Base is a compendium of real life coding questions asked by the coding community and answered by CPT® coding experts.

Over 2900 questions and authoritative answers from the CPT® professionals at the AMA. Get specific answers to challenging coding questions, and search the knowledge base of others' real world questions.

Access to this feature is available in the following products:
  • AMA's CPT® Advanced Coding Pack

demo
request yours today
 subscribe
start today
 newsletter
free subscription

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

Aimee- AI -powered coding assistant - Try it now for Free Would you like Aimee - AI
to help you with this?