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General Surgery Coding Alert

General Surgery Coding:

Assess These Ablation Differences

Published on Wed Feb 04, 2026

Question: The surgeon’s operative report mentions they used laser ablation to control the patient’s bleeding during surgery. What is the difference between laser ablation and radiofrequency ablation? Wyoming Subscriber Answer: Simply put, laser ablation uses heat from focused light energy to cauterize the tissue, thus stopping the bleeding, while radiofrequency ablation uses the heat from focused radio waves to reach [...]
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