Line of Thinking on Fracture Coding

Abstract

AbstractFractures include pathological and traumatic fractures; and a certain line of thinking should be followed when coding. The pathological fractures caused by osteoporosis should be coded to M80.-. The pathological fractures not caused by osteoporosis, if occurring in the spine, should be coded to M49.5*; those not occurring in the spine, if they are caused by a tumor, should be coded to M90.7*, while those not caused by a tumor should be coded to M84.4. In traumatic fractures, fatigue fractures of spine should be coded to M48.4, while those not of the spine should be coded to M84.3; fractures due to birth injury should be coded to P11.5 or P13.-; in general traumatic fractures, if the region of fractures is unspecified, the fractures should be coded to T08-T14, the fractures of multiple regions (cross-categories) should be coded to T02, multiple fractures of single region (cross-subcategories) should be coded to S-2.7, and single fractures should be coded to relevant subcategories in S-2 except for ...