Guided Notes

Surgery: Skin & Musculoskeletal

Lesion excisions, biopsies, wound repairs, debridement, incision and drainage, fracture treatment, joint injections, arthroscopy and joint replacement.

Lesion excision: measure correctly

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Excision codes (benign 11400–11471, malignant 11600–11646) depend on: • benign vs malignant (from pathology), • anatomic site group (trunk/arms/legs; scalp/neck/hands/feet/genitalia; face/ears/eyelids/nose/lips), • excised diameter = the lesion's greatest clinical diameter + the narrowest margin required × 2.

Example: a 1.0 cm lesion excised with 0.2 cm margins → 1.0 + 0.4 = 1.4 cm. Each lesion is coded separately. Simple closure is included; intermediate or complex repair is reported separately.