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Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Reader Question:

Confirm Tumor Pathology In Tumors

Published on Tue Jul 17, 2012

Question: Our surgeon did a biparietal, bifrontal craniotomy to bridge the sagittal sinus. Diagnosis was bregmatic tumor. Are we correct to report 61512 (Craniectomy, trephination, bone flap craniotomy; for excision of meningioma, supratentorial)?New Mexico SubscriberAnswer: The bregma is defined as the junctional point of the coronal and sagittal sutures. This does not specify the pathology of the underlying tumor. While a convexity tumor is likely a meningioma and would be reported with 61512, if the histopathology is not a meningioma, the procedure would be reported with 61510 (Craniectomy, trephination, bone flap craniotomy; for excision of brain tumor, supratentorial, except meningioma) instead.
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