Wiki ORIF of the Distal radius

[cynsteve04@aol.com]

Hi,
I AM CONFUSED OVER AN OPERATIVE REPORT,
The Dr is not giving me any information about the fracture accept that its a Distal Radius Fx Intraarticular and displaced.
In the operative report he puts a THREE hole plate. The hardware is extra articular . Cpt does not have a Code for just a ORIF of the Distal Radius for just one fracture .
He does not say the fracture is comminuted !!

Thank you

 

[Orthocoderpgu]

You need to work with the physician on this one. The number of holes in the plate is meaningless and hardware will never be placed "intra-articular". The physician needs to document the number of fragments since that will change the coding. There will be at least two in this situation.