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Radiology Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

76040, 76066 Signal Joint Survey

Published on Tue Jul 01, 2003

Question: How should I report a long leg x-ray that includes films of the hip, knee, ankle and foot? Our physician suggested 73592, but it doesn't seem right.

South Carolina Subscriber

Answer: You didn't state your patient's age, so 73592 (Radiologic examination; lower extremity, infant, minimum of two views) may be appropriate, but only if the patient is an infant.  
 
If you performed the study on both lower extremities for the clinical question of leg length discrepancy, you probably performed a bone length study, otherwise known as a "scanogram" or an "orthoroentgenogram." If this is what you performed, you should report 76040 (Bone length studies [orthoroentgenogram, scanogram). This code describes a single view of both lower extremities. 
 
If the patient has a multijoint disorder and you obtain single views of two or more joints, you should instead report 76066 (Joint survey, single view, two or more joints [specify]). In such cases, each of the joints is usually imaged on separate films to improve diagnostic accuracy.   

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