tci General Surgery Coding Alert - 2019 Issue 1

Reader Question: Get Detailed for Intestinal Obstruction Dx

Question: I’m used to certain basic diagnoses that we face all the time, like intestinal obstruction, but I get confused because ICD-10 has so much detail. For instance, how should I code partial obstruction due to intestinal adhesions? SuperCoder Subscriber Answer: The correct code for your example is K56.51 (Intestinal adhesions [bands], with partial obstruction). You are correct that ICD-10-CM provides diagnosis codes to a high level of specificity. For coders who are used to using “basic” diagnosis codes, that can prove to be a challenge. For intestinal obstruction, here’s a quick summary of diagnosis...

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