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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Reader questions:

Report 63741 for shunt without laminectomy

Published on Wed Oct 21, 2009

Question: Our neurosurgeon placed a lumboperitoneal shunt with a laminectomy in February and removed it in May. Now, he has replaced the shunt without laminectomy. He'll be using the same incision site and not removing anything. How should we code this? Georgia Subscriber Answer: Submit 63741 (Creation of shunt, lumbar, subarachnoid-peritoneal, -pleural, or other; percutaneous, not requiring laminectomy) for the most recent surgery. You should have reported 63740 (... including laminectomy) for the original surgery and 63746 (Removal of entire lumbosubarachnoid shunt system without replacement) for the shunt removal in May.
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