Orthopedic Coding Alert

Balloon and cement? Identify technique, levels and regions to recoup full payment. When your orthopedist repairs a fractured vertebra percutaneously with cement, you will need to check the op note to determine if the procedure involved only cement placement or if the physician used a balloon to create space before placing the cement. Your surgeon does this to stabilize the spine and aid fracture healing. These are two different procedures, though both involve cement placement into the fractured vertebra through small, minimally invasive percutaneous incisions under x-ray guidance. Distinguish Vertebroplasty From Kyphoplasty One key to accurate vertebral fracture coding is understanding how vertebroplasty is different from kyphoplasty. Both involve bone cement placement. In kyphoplasty, the cement is placed after inflating a balloon to create room for the cement in a collapsed vertebral fracture. Vertebroplasty: This involves injection of bone cement under pressure into the fractured vertebra with the patient under [...]