Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Question: My gastroenterologist treated a patient's esophageal varices (456.0) with an EGD with ligator banding, and the ring fell off. He had to retrieve the band. Should I code this as a foreign-body removal?

Answer: Because this occurred during the EGD procedure, you should not treat the retrieval of the ring as a foreign-body removal (FBR). In other words, you would not report a code for this service. You should report the EGD with 43255 (Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy including esophagus, stomach, and either the��'duodenum and/or jejunum as appropriate; with control of bleeding, any method) when the physician was the one who placed the band.