# 27427  Which ligamens are intra-articular and which are extra-articular?



## Orthocoderpgu (Apr 25, 2016)

Does anyone know which ligaments are intra-articular & which are extra-articular? That would help in choosing 27427, 27428 & 27429.


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## trose45116 (Apr 25, 2016)

Orthocoderpgu said:


> Does anyone know which ligaments are intra-articular & which are extra-articular? That would help in choosing 27427, 27428 & 27429.



The Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) & Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) have a central location inside the joint (intraarticular) while the Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) & Lateral Collateral Ligament (LCL) are located on the inner and outer sides of the knee joint (extra-articular).


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## shecodes (Apr 26, 2016)

Unfortunately, it's not always that straight forward.

While the ligament is a good starting point, you must also take into consideration the type of repair being performed. I've copied a piece of a CPT assistant below to give you an example. 



> Sometimes, when repairing an ACL, the surgeon may chose to combine an intra-articular repair (ie, bone-patella-bone) with an extra-articular repair (ie, hamstrings). In that case code 27429, Ligamentous reconstruction (augmentation), knee; intra-articular, (open) and extra-articular,is the correct code to report.


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