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 2023. The coding advice may or may not be outdated.

Empiric Ablation Slow Pathway Modification

Date: Oct 3, 2023

Question:

Can I bill for an empric ablation of slow pathway?

Ventricular pacing - VA conduction was present as baselinem midline, and decremetnal. Ventricular extrastimulus testing was performed with retograde AVNERP=500/300/290ms and VERP 500/240ms.

Atrial pacing - incremetnal atrial pacing show no pre-excitation. AV Wenchebach cycle length=410ms. With atrial extrastimuli dual AV notal physiology was persent, AVNERP=500/370ms. Patient started on Isuprel. With pacing Typical AVNRT could be induced but double echos were easily reproduced. Patient was not inducible for Atrial tachycardia or Atrial Fibrillation. Decision was made to perform empiric slow pathway modification.

Ablation: Slow pathway modification was performed by RF ablation.

Post Ablation: AH & HV intervals were unchanged. With isuprel and atrial pacing, AVNERP=500/350ms. AV nodal echos could not be induced.

Conclusion:

Dual AV nodal physiology was persent and double echos were noted. Patient likely has AVNRT.

Successful ablation for slow pathway for treatment of typical AVNRT.

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!