General Surgery Coding Alert

Question: I’m not familiar with this term and don’t know how to report a duodenojejunostomy — can you help? 

Ohio Subscriber

Answer: The term duodenojejunostomy means that the surgeon joins the duodenum and jejunum, which are the first and middle sections of the small intestine, creating an artificial opening between them.

A few codes are available for the procedure, depending on the details of the surgery. If the surgeon removes just one congruent section of small intestine between the duodenum and jejunum and performs just one anastomosis, which is the surgical connection that creates the new opening, you can select one of these codes:

• 44120 — Enterectomy, resection of small intestine; single resection and anastomosis
• 44202 — Laparoscopy, surgical; enterectomy, resection of small intestine, single resection and anastomosis.

If the procedure is more complicated, involving additional resection and anastomosis, you’ll need some additional codes, such as +44121 (…each additional resection and anastomosis [List separately in addition to code for primary procedure]) for an open procedure.