Reattachment Procedures

When a body part is completely disconnected, usually by trauma, a reattachment procedure may be necessary to repair the detachment so that function can be restored.  Reattachment is the putting back in or on all or a portion of a separated body part to its normal location or other suitable location.

Tendons

A common reattachment procedure is performed on tendons.  Watch for documentation that shows the repair of an avulsion or detachment, versus the repair of a tear that has not completely detached the tendon from the bone.

The body part key does not contain tendons.  Since tendons connect muscle to bone, the name of the body part used for tendons is the muscle body part they are attached to.  The exception to this rule is the Achilles tendon and the patellar tendon.  For example, reattachment of the biceps tendon to the shoulder muscle is coded to right or left shoulder.

The suture anchor or bone anchor is not a device when it is used to anchor stitches for tendon reattachment.  The anchor remains in the bone permanently unless it causes a problem.  If it has to be removed because it becomes infected or has another type of failure, the root operation for removal is Extirpation, because it is considered a foreign body, not a device.

Ligaments

Ligaments attach bone to bone and consist of fibrous tissue.  They are anchored to bone using a bone plug.  The bone plug is harvested with the tendon that is used to take the place of the ligament in a repair procedure.  This will be coded as replacement of the ligament with autologous tissue and excision of the tendon for the graft harvest.