tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2011 Issue 9

Don't Confuse Fasciotomy with Escharotomy

Reserve 20000 incisions for fascia covering muscle. The procedure is similar -- your surgeon incises tissue to relieve swelling -- but the codes are different. When your surgeon performs escharotomy for patients with third-degree burns, make sure you don't choose a fasciotomy code for the procedure. If a coder keys in on body site where the surgeon performs the incision, coming up with the wrong code would be easy. Stick to Skin The CPT musculoskeletal system includes codes for "fasciotomy" or "decompression fasciotomy" under the "incision" subheading for many body sites, such as the following codes: 25020- 25023 --...

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