• Health care organizations have started wound care clinics to care for patients with non-healing wounds and frequently use wound care debridement codes to report the services
• The care of a post-op wound is done by the surgeon in the global period, and is not separately paid, unless it is on-going and must be referred to the wound clinic
• Often, patients treated in wound clinic have underlying vascular or metabolic problems that hinder wound closure.

This article covers common CPT^® codes for debridement, documentation guidelines and related issues.

Wound care debridement codes

11042—11047 Use these codes when the only procedure performed in wound debridement.

11042 – Debridement, subcutaneous tissue (includes epidermis and dermis, if performed); first 20 sq cm or less

+11045 –  each additional 20 sq cm, or part thereof (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)

11043 – Debridement, muscle and/or fascia (includes epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous tissue, If performed); first 20 sq cm or less

+11046 –  each additional 20 sq cm, or part thereof (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)

11044 – Debridement, bone (includes epidermis, dermis, subcutaneous tissue, muscle and/or fascia, if performed); first 20 sq cm or less

+11047 –  each additional 20 sq cm, or part thereof (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)

These codes are defined by depth and size, not anatomic site.

Documentation guidelines for CPT^® codes 11042—11047,

• These are the CPT wound care debridement codes
• When a single wound has multiple depths, report one code based on the deepest level
• When multiple wounds have the same depth, add together total square centimeters and report one code
• For multiple wounds of different depths, report the deepest first and report additional debridement codes with modifier 59
• Code selecting is not based on anatomic location
• There are also codes for debridement that includes bone, but these are not in this guide for minor procedures.