Wiki Wound Debridgement

snodine

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Hi, It's been a while since I've done wound debridement coding. Our surgeon is doing a series of debridements for a Morel-Lavallee thigh injury. These debridements are being done in the hospital OR. The first one she debrided the entire subcutaneous wound area 27cm x 37cm (999 sq cm) and placed a wound vac so we billed 11042 x's 1, 11045 x 's 49 and 97606 x 1. My question comes on the other debridements done a few days apart.

The 2nd surgery: It's still a subcutaneous debridement, the wound itself measures 27cm x 37 cm and she says she debrided an area of 20 sq cm. In this case we billed 11042 x's 1 and since she placed a wound vac on the entire wound we also billed 97606 x 1.

The 3rd surgery: Still subcutaneous debridement, wound measures 27 x 37 and the surgeon states debrided >20 sq cm and the wound vac was again placed over entire wound. We billed 11042 x 1, 11045 x 1 and 97606 x 1

On Surgery 2 and 3 does that coding look correct. I take it we can only bill for the area debrided and not the size of the total wound. Each time she also states: "wound was pulsavac'd with 3L of Pulsavac fluid with 50,000 units of bacitracin and then the extra large sponge was used to place into the wound coming to the appropriate size". Is that part of the wound vac placement (to me it looks like it). We are wanting to make sure we are not missing anything.
Thanks,
Susan
 
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