Anesthesia Coding Alert

Note: Please consult CPT 2001 for final and complete information. The codes listed in this article are simply a preliminary look at new and revised anesthesia codes.

Although CPT 2000 brought few major changes to codes in the anesthesia section (no new codes, 13 revisions, and 11 deletions), CPT 2001 will incorporate many more changes. This year there are 10 new codes,13 revised codes and two deletions.

All of the anesthesia revisions fell into one of 11 categories proposed by representatives of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). Stanley W. Stead, MD, a California anesthesiologist and a member of the American Medical Associations (AMA) CPT editorial board, says the revisions are designed to make coding for anesthesia services more specific and accurate.

New Anesthesia Codes

New codes for 2001 relate to areas ranging from cardiac electrophysiologic procedures to cervical spine procedures, bone marrow aspiration or burn excision. Although descriptors are listed below, take this list as information only and refer to the actual CPT 2001 for final codes. The new codes are listed below, including sample vignettes and other information.

Intrathoracic

CPT 00537 anesthesia for cardiac electrophysiologic procedures including radio frequency ablation

Cardiac electrophysiologic procedures are relatively new, yet the depth and breadth of these procedures are rapidly expanding. Suppose you have a patient in good general health who complains of palpitations and an occasional shortness of breath not associated with activity. An electrocardiogram showed findings consistent with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). Given that patients with WPW are at increased risk for fatal rhythm disturbances, you schedule the patient for cardiac electrophysiologic studies and possible ablation of the aberrant pathways. Use 00537 to code the anesthesia.

00550 anesthesia for sternal debridement

Anesthesia for sternal debridement that involves surgical procedures differs from procedures represented by the current codes, 00540 (anesthesia for thoracotomy procedures involving lungs, pleura, diaphragm, and madiastinum [including surgical thorascopy]; not otherwise specified) and 00560 (anesthesia for procedures on the heart, pericardium, and great vessels of chest; without pump oxygenator).

Sternal debridement involves the mediastinum and pleura, as well as possibly including the pericardium, heart and sternum. In this scenario, a patient suffers penetrating trauma of the thorax that results in a cardiac injury requiring median sternotomy for surgical repair. On the sixth postoperative day, splitting of the sternal wound was noted, so the patient was returned to the operating room for wound debridement use code 00550 for the anesthesia.

00563 anesthesia for procedures on heart, pericardium and great vessels of [...]