In simple words: The surgeon repairs a hole in the skull, up to 5 centimeters wide, using a piece of bone from another part of your body.

This code represents a surgical procedure to repair a skull defect up to 5 cm in diameter using a bone graft taken from the patient's own body. The procedure includes harvesting the bone graft.It is typically used to address cranial defects resulting from depressed skull fractures, congenital abnormalities, tumors, or other trauma or disease.

Example 1: A patient with a depressed skull fracture resulting in a 3 cm defect undergoes cranioplasty using bone harvested from the rib., A child with a congenital skull defect measuring 4 cm has a cranioplasty with an autograft taken from the ilium (hip bone)., A patient who had a previous craniectomy for a tumor now has a 2 cm skull defect repaired with a split-thickness bone graft from an uninvolved area of the skull.

Documentation should include the size and location of the skull defect, the source of the autograft, the method of fixation (e.g., miniplates, screws, wires), and any associated procedures such as placement of a lumbar drain.