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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Use Specific Codes for Burst Fractures

Published on Tue Nov 15, 2011

Question: How do we report T11 and T12 laminectomies done to decompress the spinal cord from retropulsed bone fragments from T12 burst fracture. The fragments were not removed nor was there a fusion.Arizona SubscriberAnswer: Unless a facetectomy was performed to gain more lateral exposure, you report this as 63003 (Laminectomy with exploration and/or decompression of spinal cord and/or cauda equina, without facetectomy, foraminotomy or discectomy [eg, spinal stenosis], 1 or 2 vertebral segments; thoracic).
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