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Anesthesia Coding Alert

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Crosswalking Temporal Artery Ligation

Published on Thu Feb 01, 2001

Question: Can you help me convert CPT 37609 (ligation or biopsy, temporal artery) to an anesthesia code? I have nothing in my Crosswalk to reference it to. I have three options in mind: 00190, 00300, or 00210. I tend to think 00300 would be the closest possible.

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Answer: None of the anesthesia codes you are considering would be correct. This is a vascular procedure, not one that involves the skull bones (such as for 00190) or skin/muscles/nerves (as for 00300). It also is not an intracranial procedure (as for 00210). The correct anesthesia cross-reference code is 00352, anesthesia for procedures on major vessels of neck, simple ligation. The problem is that the CPT code can be used for either ligation or biopsy of the temporal artery. This American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) code is fine for ligation, but does not seem to fit for a biopsy, but it is still the best-fitting code. If it is questioned or audited, you can refer to the published Crosswalk as the source for your decision-making.

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