Journal of pediatric surgery
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Some pediatric surgeons rarely document nonoperative services, believing that the reimbursement provided for such care is negligible. We evaluated the impact of comprehensive documentation and billing for nonoperative, pediatric surgical care. ⋯ Despite a payer mix heavily weighted toward Medicaid, comprehensive documentation and billing for nonoperative services increased total, noncontracted reimbursement by almost 20% over what it would have been had only operative services been billed. The yield from properly documented, nonoperative care can be substantial.
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Review Case Reports
Abdominal aortic injuries associated with chance fractures in pediatric patients.
Injury to the abdominal aortic artery from blunt trauma is an infrequent event with few cases reported in either the adult or the pediatric literature. Injury to the thoracic aorta after blunt abdominal trauma is more common. ⋯ Nevertheless, the overall mortality rate of this injury has been reported to be between 18% and 37%. It is therefore important to be aware of the possible association to allow prompt diagnosis and management of multitraumatized patients because extensive injuries to the abdominal viscera may mask aortic dissection and prognosis is significantly improved with early intervention.