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SEER Inquiry System - Report
Produced: 03/28/2026 12:40 PM
Question 20230073
Inquiry Details
References:
2023 SEER Manual, 208; 236; Appendix C. Appendix C Liver and Intrahepatic Bile Ducts Surgery Codes
Question:
First Course Treatment/Surgery of Primary Site--Liver/Intrahepatic Bile Ducts: For a liver/intrahepatic bile duct primary, is an alcohol embolization the same thing as a percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI)? See Discussion.
Discussion:
For C220-C221 primaries, Surgery of Primary Site includes code A150 for Alcohol tumor destruction (percutaneous ethanol injection/intratumoral injection of alcohol/alcohol ablation). The SEER and STORE manuals also indicate that alcohol embolization should be coded as Other Therapy, code 1. We are trying to determine whether alcohol embolization should be coded under Surgery of Primary Site or Other Therapy.
Answer:
Code alcohol ablation under Surgery of Primary Site 2023. Code alcohol embolization as Other Therapy when tumor embolization is performed using alcohol as the embolizing agent.
Alcohol ablation, also known as an ultrasound-guided percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI); is treatment that involves injecting concentrated alcohol directly into the tumor. Embolization uses special techniques to close off blood flow by introducing special medications or using other techniques designed to block blood vessels. Types of embolization are arterial embolization as with alcohol (ethanol), chemoembolization, and radioembolization. Refer to the current SEER Program Coding and Staging Manual when assigning surgery and embolization procedures.
