Orthopedic Coding Alert

Question: The surgeon grafted nerve from a cadaver donor to the median nerve but also used a sural nerve autograft to the ulnar nerve. Is there a code to represent both cadaver grafting and an autograft during the same procedure?

Ohio Subscriber

Answer: Because your physician used an autograft, select the most appropriate nerve graft code from 64890-64898, based on the number of strands and their lengths. Including a cadaver graft during the procedure doesn't change your coding.

-- Reader Questions and You Be the Coder were reviewed by Heidi Stout, CPC, CCS-P, director of orthopedic coding services at The Coding Network LLC; and Bill Mallon, MD, orthopedic surgeon and medical director at Triangle Orthopaedic Associates in Durham, N.C.