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Anesthesia Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Submit 00670 for Harrington Rod Surgery

Published on Tue Jan 04, 2011

Question: What would be the best anesthesia code for spinal surgery including laminectomy and insertion of Harrington rods? Answer: The correct choice is 00670 (Anesthesia for extensive spine and spinal cord procedures [e.g., spinal instrumentation or vascular procedures]). Surgeons sometimes insert Harrington rods to help straighten the spine, though many physicians use more updated techniques today. The inclusion of "spinal instrumentation" in the code's descriptor points you to 00670 instead of a more general spine code such as 00600 (Anesthesia for procedures on cervical spine and cord; not otherwise specified).
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