Reader Questions:
Discern the Osteochondral Defect
Published on Mon May 09, 2011
Question For an osteochondral defect in the medial aspect of the left femoral condyle, an arthroscopy was done through standard portals under tourniquet control. There was a lot of synovitis anteriorly, so a sagittal synovectomy was planned. The large osteochondral defect (3cm x 2cm, ½ cm thick) was carefully teased out after expanding the incision. The loose body was removed through a large incision on the medial side and a biopsy was done from the lateral femoral condyle. How do I code for the procedure?Ohio SubscriberAnswer You report code 29874 (Arthroscopy, knee, surgical; for removal of loose body or foreign body (eg, osteochondritisdissecans fragmentation, chondral fragmentation)). The code is inclusive of synovectomy and this is not reported as a separate procedure. It will not be right to also report 29875 (Arthroscopy, knee, surgical; synovectomy, limited (eg, plica or shelf resection) (separate procedure) or 29876 (Arthroscopy, knee, surgical; synovectomy, major, 2 [...]
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