AHA Coding Clinic® for ICD-9 - 2005 Issue 3; Ask the Editor

Neutropenic Fever with Pancytopenia

The patient is a 69-year-old female with breast cancer receiving weekly Taxol therapy. She developed a high-grade fever at home, presented to the emergency department and was found to have neutropenic fever. The patient was admitted for treatment of neutropenic fever. The physician documented that the patient also had pancytopenia. How should this be coded? Coding Clinic has previously stated that pancytopenia is a deficiency of all three elements of the blood and includes anemia (deficiency of red cells), neutropenia (deficiency of white cells), and thrombocytopenia (deficiency of platelets). Is this advice true when the final diagnosis is neutropenic fever? ...

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