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Coding tip: Note the three types of skin grafts

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, November 13, 2007

Code skin graft procedures based on the type of graft used and the recipient site.

Types of skin grafts include:

• Autograft-using the patient's own skin
• Allograft-using skin obtained from another person
• Xenograft-free skin grafts obtained from a non-human source (usually a pig)

Free skin grafts use an unattached portion of skin, which a physician transfers to another site. Split grafts contain both epidermis and dermis layers. Full-thickness grafts include an equal and continuous section of both epidermal and dermal layers of skin. Composite grafts include more than one type of tissue, such as the mixture of the different types of skin from the ears and nostrils. A physician assembles this "mixture" to fill in a defect to provide skin and structural support (cartilage) in the recipient site, minimizing scarring and distortion.

Derma-fascia-fat grafts are used similarly to composite grafts; physicians use these grafts to blend in blemishes or defects from surgical excisions, atrophy, and other skin problems. Physicians use punch grafts for hair transplants or for revision of scarring, such as acne scars.

This tip is brought to you by Ellis Medical Consulting, Inc.

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