One of my physicians worked in a case with another surgeon and he performed a "Thoracoabdominal exposure for a corpectomy of the vertebral body with plate placement". Not sure how to code since all my surgeon done was the initial opening of the surgical site. Can someone please help me with this? The op note is listed below:
After endotracheal anesthesia, the patient was placed in right lateral decubitus with lieft side up. We then performed a standard thoracoabdominal incision throught the ninth rib space. We created a retroperitoneal plane. We took down the diaphragm circumferentially and took the crus of the diaphragm. There were adhesions to the lung that were lysed from his previous diaphragm repair and chest tube placement. Once we had taken down the diaphragm, we exposed the vertebral bodies. We exposed approximately T12 down to L3. At this time the case was turned over to the primary surgeon. After he finished his corpectomy and plate placement, we then let the retroperitoneum fall back into place. We closed the ribs with interrupted Maxon sutures. the retroperitoneum was closed in layers of #1 PDS. We irrigated the wounds with Betadine and closed the skin with skin clips.
Thank you for any help on this.
After endotracheal anesthesia, the patient was placed in right lateral decubitus with lieft side up. We then performed a standard thoracoabdominal incision throught the ninth rib space. We created a retroperitoneal plane. We took down the diaphragm circumferentially and took the crus of the diaphragm. There were adhesions to the lung that were lysed from his previous diaphragm repair and chest tube placement. Once we had taken down the diaphragm, we exposed the vertebral bodies. We exposed approximately T12 down to L3. At this time the case was turned over to the primary surgeon. After he finished his corpectomy and plate placement, we then let the retroperitoneum fall back into place. We closed the ribs with interrupted Maxon sutures. the retroperitoneum was closed in layers of #1 PDS. We irrigated the wounds with Betadine and closed the skin with skin clips.
Thank you for any help on this.