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General Surgery Coding Alert

General Surgery Coding:

Identify Margins, Measurements, and Malignancy for WLE Coding

Published on Mon Aug 31, 2026

Also, learn how to navigate closures and modifiers for malignant lesion excision. A wide local excision (WLE) is a surgical procedure performed with a scalpel to remove abnormal tissue along with a margin of surrounding healthy tissue. To assign the correct CPT® code for a melanoma WLE (distinct from shaving or destruction), three variables must be evaluated: pathologic classification, anatomical [...]
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