Spinal Bone Graft Codes at a Glance
Published on Tue Apr 13, 2004
When reporting bone grafts with spinal fusions (22548-22812) and/or instrumentation (22840-22855), you should choose from among the following five codes, depending on whether the surgeon harvested the graft from the patient's own body (autograft) or received the graft from a bone bank (allograft).
20930 -- Allograft for spine surgery only; morselized
20931 -- ... structural
20936 -- Autograft for spine surgery only (includes harvesting the graft); local (e.g., ribs, spinous process, or laminar fragments) obtained from same incision
20937 -- ... morselized (through separate skin or fascial incision)
20938 -- ... structural, bicortical or tricortical (through separate skin or fascial incision). Remember, a structural bone graft consists of a single piece of bone that provides direct support for skeletal structures, while a morselized (or small-segment) graft consists of small pieces of bone joined together to fill bony cavities, primarily to promote new bone growth.
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