Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Question: Is it appropriate to report 64999 when the surgeon does T1 and T2 corpectomies through an anterior cervical and supraclavicular approach with a C7-T3 fusion as due to the patient's low lying sternum, he was able to access C7- T3 anteriorly?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: The code descriptor for 63085 (Vertebral corpectomy (vertebral body resection), partial or complete, transthoracic approach with decompression of spinal cord and/or nerve root(s); thoracic, single segment) involves a transthoracic approach for an anterior thoracic vertebral corpectomy. While this is typically applied to a thoracotomy approach, the approach described requires entry into the thoracic inlet from above, which is also a transthoracic approach. The unlisted code does not need to be applied in this circumstance.