Neurosurgery Coding Alert

Question: Do we separately report the harvesting of pericranial flaps in cranial procedures?

New York Subscriber

Answer: Harvesting of a pericranial flap is not separately reported; it is incidental to the operative procedure(s) and is obtained locally within the skin flap exposure of the primary operative procedure(s). However, if the pericranial graft is harvested to repair a CSF leak after prior skull base surgery, this would be reportedly separately with code 61618 (Secondary repair of dura for cerebrospinal fluid leak, anterior, middle or posterior cranial fossa following surgery of the skull base; by free tissue graft (eg, pericranium, fascia, tensor fascia lata, adipose tissue, homologous or synthetic grafts).