Tracy (otherwise unidentified) asks:

>>Currently we gross only hammertoes and bunions. Does anyone process these? 
If 
so what charge do you use?<<

Some of my locum tenens clients definitely do decalcify these specimens and 
prepare sections. The 88311 code for decalcification is appropriate. Without 
checking, I'd charge an 88304 for the diagnosis.

In toe amputations, microscopic examination for osteomyelitis (which requires 
decalcification) is needed. With hammer toes and bunions, I guess you might 
occasionally find a hammertoma....

I'm somewhat bewildered by specimens from podiatrists, and I wonder if 
there's a textbook of podiatric pathology out there.

On another ?gross-only topic, we're having quite an interesting discussion on 
PATHO-L about examination of reduction mammoplasty specimens and the 
occasional unsuspected cancers pathologists on the list have seen in them.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN