margins vs length of excision

I struggle with what size skin excision codes to use when my doctor removes benign and malignant lesions. CPT code book shows in the front of the each section, to add the lesion plus the margin (which I'm not sure what they mean by margin). But then in the actual description of the code, it states, for example: 11401 excised diameter .6 to 1.0 cm.

Can anyone help?

SB

It's a medical term

Margin is the distance between the edge of the lesion and the edge of the excision. There are guidelines for cancer excision that certain margins are needed to minimize the risk of recurrence. You code and report by total excision size. A 2 cm lesion with a 1 cm margin (remember that it is 1 cm on each side- think of a small circle in a large circle) is a 4 cm excision.

lesions

Just to add to that: Sometimes physicians document in inches but the CPT code description describes centimeters. Therefore remember that 1 inch is approximately 2.5 cm.

Another though: The lesion and margins are identified by diameter and not by the radius. Thus it is a measurement as if a line has passed thru the lesion and the measurement is taken on two sides including room for the margins.