Wiki Foreign Body

[PLAIDMAN]

Patient stepped on some glass. Doc opened wound to explore for foreign body , irrigated, closed wound, but could find no foreign body.

How would you code this? Would you code it?

Thanks
Dawn

 

[jmkitchen]

Did you look at 20103?

 

[trvlingal]

20103 reads "The physician explores a penetrating wound in the operating room, such a gunshot or stab wound, to help identify damaged structures. Nerve, organ and blood vessel integrity is assessed." 20103 is most likely incorrect since your doc was just looking for a foreign body.

I would look at 12001-12007 (depending upon size of the laceration. This code reads "The physician sutures superficial lacerations of the scalp, neck, axillae, external genitalia, trunk or extremities. A local anesthetic is injected around the laceration and the wound is cleansed, explored and often irrigated with a saline solution."

 

[michellelgrd]

you can use the artrotomy code for the exploration even though no foreign body was identified however if the rvu is less than the repair then just code the repair of the laceration as it would be considered inclusive w/ if coded w/ the arthrotomy