# Percutaneous tenotomy of achilles tendon



## coderguy1939 (Jan 29, 2009)

Doctor did a percutaneous tenotomy of achilles tendon and felt that it did not accomplish everything intended, so he opened the site and found that there was nothing else to be done.  In this instance would you just code the percutaneous procedure?  Thanks.


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## mbort (Jan 29, 2009)

coderguy1939 said:


> Doctor did a percutaneous tenotomy of achilles tendon and felt that it did not accomplish everything intended, so he opened the site and found that there was nothing else to be done.  In this instance would you just code the percutaneous procedure?  Thanks.



excellent question!!!

My thought process:

I would code for the open procedure.

why:  because he opened which is a more complex than percutaneous.  Even though he didnt do any additional work, there was still more involvement such as exploring the area and the closure.  I would use the V dx code for the convert to open as well.

Mary, CPC, COSC


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## coderguy1939 (Jan 29, 2009)

Thanks for your input, Mary.


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