Wiki Wound Coding-I thought I understood

[bnixon]

I thought I understood how to calculate the area of an excised lesion but a denial recently made me question my thought processes. I know the calculation: the lesion's diameter at its widest point and add to that measurement double the width of the narrowest margin. It is the width of the narrowest margin that is confusing me - how do you calculate that number?
For instance, if the lesion measures 2.5 X 1.5 and the area excised is 3 X 1.7, how do I calculate the narrowest margin? I know I would add 2.5 to the number that represents the narrowest margin, but in this case is the narrowest margin .5? ( 2.5 size of lesion and 3 excised area - I subtracted 2.5 from 3) Or would it be 1.7 X 2 plus 2.5?

I am struggling with the second part of the calculation - the width of the narrowest margin. Maybe it is not a calculation at all but just using the actual narrowest margin as stated in the excised area.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sometimes you just have to talk things out.

 

[mitchellde]

you are overthinking this. If the provider gives you the lesion size and the excised size then you use the largest excised diameter, he has already added it. So if the lesion size was 2.5 X 1.5 and the excised diameter was 3x1.7 then the margins were .25. If he had said " ...., excised a 2.5x1.5 size lesion with .25 margins" then you would have 2.5 +.25+.25 which would equal the excised diameter of 3.