Wiki Laparotomy with adhesions

[knderouselle]

One of my surgeons while performing an exploratory laparotomy noticed dense adhesions from a previous hysterectomy...per the op-note: during entry an unavoidable injury to the small bowel occured at which time a small bowel resection and anastomosis was done to fix the injury. Can we code for the small bowel resection?

 

[Kisalyn]

Hope you receive some replies.

We will start coding for general surgery soon and this case may come up. I certainly don't want to leave any money on the table. However, my thought is that if the injury occurs during the procedure then it is not a separately reportable service. Now if he/she was going in to perform a resection to begin with, then report it, but this doesn't sound like the case.