# Excision of chest wall mass



## aiken (Oct 6, 2015)

How do I code excision of chest wall mass? The biopsy showed the mass to be an indurated, but not inflamed mass. I have looked at 39220, 21555, and 19260-52 but none say "mass."  These codes refer to "tumor" and not to "mass." I'm a new coder so any help is appreciated! - Susan


----------



## jrwclean (Oct 6, 2015)

*Mass or tumor?*

Mass, nodule, lesion, tumor, are words that tend to be used interchangeably. They do have somewhat different meanings. A lesion may or may not be formed by abnormal neoplastic cells, a tumor may or may not be malignant, a nodule may be smaller than a mass. The term mass may be used for an object larger than 20mm.

With the limited information you've provided, I would tend to go with 19260.


----------

