Summary & Overview
CPT 01810: Anesthesia for Forearm, Wrist, and Hand Procedures
CPT code 01810 designates anesthesia services provided for procedures on the nerves, muscles, tendons, fascia, and bursae of the forearm, wrist, and hand. This anesthesia-specific code is used when an anesthesia professional manages perioperative anesthesia care for surgical or procedural interventions confined to those anatomical areas. Nationally, accurate use of this code affects billing consistency for anesthesia services, impacts provider reimbursement, and supports appropriate claims adjudication across payers.
Key payers discussed include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna Health, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare. The publication provides a concise overview of clinical context for 01810, common billing considerations, and the payer landscape relevant to anesthesia claims for upper-extremity soft-tissue and nerve procedures.
Readers will learn: an operational definition of the code and typical sites of service (operating room, ambulatory surgery center, procedure suite); which major payers are covered in the analysis; and what types of benchmarks, policy updates, and clinical context to expect in the full publication. Where input data was not provided, the summary notes that specific fields are unavailable rather than altering the code definition. This piece serves as a national reference for clinicians, billing professionals, and policy analysts working with anesthesia billing for hand, wrist, and forearm procedures.
Billing Code Overview
CPT code 01810 describes anesthesia services for procedures on the nerves, muscles, tendons, fascia, and bursae of the forearm, wrist, and hand. The code is used when the anesthesia provider administers and manages anesthesia specifically for surgical or procedural interventions targeting those anatomical structures.
Service type: Anesthesia services for forearm, wrist, and hand soft-tissue and nerve procedures
Typical site of service: Operating room, ambulatory surgery center, or procedure suite
Data not available in the input.
Clinical & Coding Specifications
Clinical Context
A typical patient is a 45-year-old right-hand–dominant carpenter presenting with progressive wrist pain, numbness and tingling in the median nerve distribution, and hand weakness despite conservative care. Clinical evaluation and nerve conduction studies confirm compression of the median nerve at the wrist and the patient is scheduled for carpal tunnel release under monitored anesthesia care or regional block. The anesthesia provider performs peripheral nerve block or regional anesthesia targeting nerves of the forearm, wrist, and hand to provide intraoperative anesthesia and postoperative analgesia. The workflow includes preoperative evaluation (history, ASA classification, allergy review, medication reconciliation), informed consent for anesthesia, performance of an ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve block (for example, median and/or ulnar nerve block at the forearm or wrist), intraoperative monitoring, and immediate postoperative hand motor and sensory assessment with discharge planning for ambulatory patients or hand therapy referral for postoperative rehabilitation.
Coding Specifications
| Modifier | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
23 | Unusual Anesthesia | Use when anesthesia is required for procedures that are normally not performed under anesthesia because of unusual circumstances. |
50 | Bilateral Procedure | Use when identical procedures are performed on both hands or bilateral forearms during the same operative session. |
52 | Reduced Services | Use when the anesthesia service is partially reduced or not completed as planned. |
53 | Discontinued Procedure | Use when the procedure is started but terminated due to extenuating circumstances or those that threaten the patient. |
56 | Preoperative Evaluation Only | Use when the anesthesiologist provides only preoperative evaluation and does not provide intraoperative anesthesia. |
59 | Distinct Procedural Service | Use to indicate a separate and distinct anesthesia service when multiple procedures or regional blocks are billed separately. |
62 | Two Surgeons | Use when two surgeons work together as primary surgeons; may affect anesthesia billing context when additional operative complexity exists. |
78 | Unplanned Return to OR | Use when the patient returns to the operating room for a related procedure during the global period, requiring additional anesthesia services. |
AA | Anesthesia by Anesthesiologist | Use to indicate services personally performed by a physician anesthesiologist. |
AD | Medical Supervision by a Physician; 4 or More Concurrent Anesthesias | Use when a physician supervises four or more concurrent anesthesia procedures. |
| Taxonomy Code | Specialty | Notes |
|---|---|---|
207P00000X | Anesthesiology | Providers who administer anesthesia, including peripheral nerve blocks and regional anesthesia. |
208400000X | General Surgery | Surgeons who commonly perform hand and wrist procedures requiring anesthesia. |
207L00000X | Pain Medicine | Specialists who may perform or assist with nerve procedures and regional blocks for analgesia. |
207K00000X | Orthopedic Surgery | Orthopedic hand surgeons frequently performing operative procedures on forearm, wrist, and hand. |
207RH0000X | Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation | Clinicians involved in postoperative rehabilitation and functional assessment after surgery. |
Related Diagnoses
| ICD-10 Code | Description | Clinical Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Data not available in the input. |
Related CPT Codes
| CPT Code | Description | Relationship to This Procedure |
|---|---|---|
20526 | Injection, therapeutic, carpal tunnel, single or multiple injections; single or multiple structures | May be performed preoperatively for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes in patients with wrist/hand nerve pathology when nonoperative management is attempted prior to anesthesia for surgery. |
64450 | Injection(s), anesthetic agent; other peripheral nerve or branch (eg, ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric), single | Represents peripheral nerve injection techniques; similar nerve block approaches are used for anesthesia of the forearm, wrist, and hand. |
64415 | Injection, anesthetic agent; brachial plexus, single injection | Alternative regional anesthesia technique providing anesthesia to the entire upper extremity; may be used instead of more distal forearm/wrist nerve blocks. |
29848 | Wrist arthroscopy, with synovectomy, debridement, or other intra-articular procedures | Example of a surgical procedure on the wrist for which anesthesia code 01810 would apply. |
64721 | Neuroplasty and/or transposition; median nerve at carpal tunnel | Common surgical procedure on the hand/wrist nerves where anesthesia services for forearm/wrist/hand are required. |