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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Reader questions:

Complex or Simple Guides Lesion Coding

Published on Sat Jan 23, 2010

Question: My neurosurgeon completed stereotactic radiosurgery for an acoustic neuroma, including head frame placement, volumetric analysis, and tumor mapping when planning the procedure. How should we code this? Missouri Subscriber Answer: Because your surgeon completed both the surgery and frame placement, you can report the neuroma treatment with 61798 (Stereotactic radiosurgery [particle beam, gamma ray, or linear accelerator]; 1 complex cranial lesion) in addition to +61800 (Application of stereotactic headframe for stereotactic radiosurgery [Listseparately in addition to code for primary procedure]). If the acoustic neuroma does not qualify as "complex," submit 61796 (Stereotactic radiosurgery [particle beam, gamma ray, or linear accelerator]; 1 simple cranial lesion) instead of 61798. Guidelines note: CPT includes several notations to help you correctly report the cranial lesion removal. Pay attention to those notations and the section guidelines to ensure you report the correct number of codes.
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