Ask Dr. Z

"Procedures: 1) Redo right femoral to anterior tibial artery bypass with 6 mm PTFE. 2) Cephalic vein patch angioplasty of anterior tibial artery. 3) Ligation left SFA. 4) Left common femoral artery thrombectomy/endarterectomy. 5) Left arm cephalic vein harvest.

Due to concerns about the thrombus in the SFA potentially washing out into the bypass or into the profundofemoral artery the SFA was then divided off of the common femoral artery at the level of the femoral bifurcation and ligated with a 3-0 Prolene suture. The arteriotomy on the common femoral artery was then debrided and shaped so that the bypass could lay very nicely with the heel of the graft just at the start of the profundofemoral artery coming off the femoral bifurcation."

I understand that the ligation is typically included in the bypass procedure. Would the ligation be billable in this instance?