Sephardic
Networker
Would appreciate an opinion on this one. Patient was in a motor cycle accident and my physician's postoperative diagnosis is stating "severe full-thickness skin loss anterior aspect of left knee".
The report reads "meticulous debridement of asphalt and gravel and dirt from the anterior aspect of the patella was performed. Some missing anterior left patellar cortical bone was present".
Since it sounds like the patella bone was chipped away at would it be appropriate to code this as a open fracture of the patella? The doctor's office picked 891.1 (open wound knee, complicated). All he did was the debridement and closed the skin. He made no other mention of doing anything to the bone. I doubt he could do anything. I'm asking because if I change the DX then I have to change the CPT code. There are separate debridement CPT codes for open fractures. (and he didn't pick those)...Thanks!
The report reads "meticulous debridement of asphalt and gravel and dirt from the anterior aspect of the patella was performed. Some missing anterior left patellar cortical bone was present".
Since it sounds like the patella bone was chipped away at would it be appropriate to code this as a open fracture of the patella? The doctor's office picked 891.1 (open wound knee, complicated). All he did was the debridement and closed the skin. He made no other mention of doing anything to the bone. I doubt he could do anything. I'm asking because if I change the DX then I have to change the CPT code. There are separate debridement CPT codes for open fractures. (and he didn't pick those)...Thanks!
