# bone marrow aspirate for arthroscopic surgery



## ellenecr (Feb 14, 2011)

One of our surgeons has been performing a fairly new procedure to us, in which he aspirates bone marrow from the patient, (he actually calls it "bone marrow harvesting from the tibia"), then mixes the bone marrow aspirate with the "platelet rich plasma" that he drew from the patient's peripheral blood system.  Following the arthroscopic meniscal repair, he then injects this mixture into the knee.  I know that the injection of the mixture into the knee would be considered part of the arthroscopic surgery code.  However, since the aspiration of the bone marrow is done separately and taken from the tibial bone through a separate incision, can I use CPT 38230, in addition to the CPT code for the arthroscopic portion?  Does anybody out there have any experience with this surgery?


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## moodymom (Feb 15, 2011)

I'm not familiar w/the procedure your provider is performing, however I do code knee scopes and spinal surgeries daily. It seems to me that if he is aspirating bone marrow code 38220 should be used. I use this code when my provider aspirates bone marrow for spine surg. I checked the CCI edits and you can bill the knee scope w/this aspiration code. I hope this helps : )


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## ellenecr (Feb 24, 2011)

Thank you, Gina!


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