Ask Dr. Z

For the following example, would code 35741 be correct? "Patient had subtotaled popliteal artery just above his knee, about the place it looked like for entrapment. Skin incision made posteriorly across the fossa. We angled the skin incision. We opened across the fascia, went down, and found the artery. There was a lot of inflammation around the artery, and it looked like the artery was not going to be viable for an endarterectomy with patch angioplasty, so we closed the incision, flipped him over, and took the greater saphenous vein from his right groin. We oversewed the branches and cut the valves out so we were able to use this for the interposition. Incision was closed and stapled. We then turned him back over, prepped and draped, and opened the posterior incision behind his right knee. We gave 10000 units of heparin. ACT was just was 225. We gave another 10000. We then clamped the artery and did the proximal anastomosis. We had good flow through it. We cut it to appropriate length. We did the distal anastomosis, both with 6-0 Prolene, and closed."