Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Which anesthesia codes are used to report burn excision or debridement?

Montana Subscriber

Answer: CPT^® includes three anesthesia codes for burn excision/ debridement that are quite distinct from the anesthesia codes you’re used to seeing on a day-to-day basis. Instead of representing an anatomic area like most other anesthesia codes, these are based on the total amount of body area affected by the burns.

These three anesthesia codes are:

• 01951 (Anesthesia for second- and third-degree burn excision or debridement with or without skin grafting, any site, for total body surface area (TBSA) treated during anesthesia and surgery; less than 4% total body surface area)
• 01952 (… between 4% and 9% of total body surface area)
• +01953 (... each additional 9% total body surface area or part thereof (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure))

Be aware: If the TBSA is greater than 9 percent, you should use +01953 with 01952, according to CPT^®. You can’t skip 01952 to get to the add-on code.