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Reader Question: Use 10160 for Seroma Drainage

Question: The physician drained a breast seroma using a large syringe. This is technically an incision and drainage procedure, but the only available breast code (19000) specifies "Puncture aspiration of cyst of breast," and he did not aspirate a cyst. I think 10160 best describes the procedure, but that code description doesn't include seromas. Which code should I report?

Minnesota Subscriber

Answer: Although the descriptor does not include the term "seroma," 10160 (Puncture aspiration of abscess, hematoma, bulla, or cyst), as you suggest, does best describe drainage of a seroma using a syringe, so this is the code you need to report. You're correct to assume that the process you describe is neither an incision and drainage (10140, Incision and drainage of hematoma, seroma or fluid collection) nor a cyst aspiration (19000, Puncture aspiration of cyst of breast).

- Reader Questions reviewed by Sarah Goodman, MBA, CPC-H, CCP, president of SLG Inc. Consulting in Raleigh, N.C.