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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Coding Tips:

Learn 3 Codes Spinal Dura Repairs

Published on Sun Aug 28, 2011

Concurrent laminectomies are your guide.When repairing a dural tear, your surgeon may or may not need to perform a laminectomy to access the tear for a repair. Appropriately coding these dural tear procedures will depend on whether the operative note indicates that the surgeon performed a laminectomy and what graft was used for the repair. You'll choose from these 3 codes when your surgeon does a repair of the dura in the spine to contain a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak. 63707 (Repair of dural/cerebrospinal fluid leak, not requiring laminectomy) 63709 (Repair of dural/cerebrospinal fluid leak or pseudomeningocele, with laminectomy) Code 63710 (Dural graft, spinal) Read on for three operative situations that illustrate the correct use of these codesScenario 1: Dural Repair without LaminectomyIf you read in the operative note that the surgeon did a laminectomy during which the dura was punctured and the surgeon then repaired the dual leak at [...]
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