The Zhealth website will be down for maintenance from 9am - 12pm on Saturday April, 27.

Ask Dr. Z

Ask Dr. Z Knowledge Base houses over 7,500 coding questions and answers dating back to 2013.

Ask Dr. Z Disclaimer

Please note this question was answered in 2020. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.

Portal vein embolization - 37241 vs. 37243

Date: Oct 15, 2020

Question:

In 2014 question ID 6155, code 37241 is recommend for portal vein embolization, but in 2015, question ID 6336, code 37243 is recommended. I’m confused by what makes the questions different. Can you please confirm which is appropriate? Patient has hepatic cholangiocarcinoma. If portal vein embolization is being done prior to future hepatic resection but the report does not specifically state that it is done to shrink one side of the liver to cause hypertrophy of the opposite side of the liver, is it assumed that the embolization is done to shrink/kill (37243), or do we use 37241 if it only describes the procedure as embolization to prepare liver for planned hepatic resection?

Sign up for a membership to view the answer to this question.

Need to ask Dr.Z?

Don't see the answer you're looking for in the knowledge base? No problem. You can ask Dr. Z directly!
Ask Dr. Z a question now!