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Repair of Recurrent Umbilical Hernia

M

Mklaubauf

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126
Hi,
I want to make sure that I'm not missing something. If we did a umbilical hernia repair in 2006 and now the patient has a recurrent umbilical hernia. The only code I have is 49585.

Is there a code for recurrent umbilical hernia? Pt. is an adult.

Thank you,
Marci
 
There is not a code selection that differentiate initial vs recurrence for these umbilical hernias. The ventral hernia hernias are more likely to have recurrence, so code selections are as is...you would go ahead and use your initial thought out code...
MS
 
Recurrent umbilical hernia should be coded as incisional

Per General Surgery Coding Alert October 2001, "Repair of a recurrent umbilical hernia is considered an incisional hernia". Additionally, per Surgical Treatment: Evidence-Based and Problem-Oriented section on hernias through the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, “Any recurrent hernia, either inguinal, epigastric, umbilical, or at any other location, must be understood as an incisional hernia”. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6888/
 
so if a patient comes in for a laparoscopic repair of a recurrent umbilical hernia, would you code 49654, 49656, or 49652? if "incisional" means recurrent is 49656 the following repairs after the first 2? and did the initial repairs need to be "incisional" or does incisional mean any type of repair incisional or laparoscopically? we coded 49652...
 
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