Severe Sepsis

Legacy Content

This page is about the pre-ICD10 diagnosis coding schema. See the ICD10 Diagnosis List, or the following for similar diagnoses in ICD10:Severe sepsis

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edit dx infobox
Category/Organ System:	Category: Infection (old)
Type:	Medical Problem
Main Diagnosis:	Severe Sepsis
Sub Diagnosis:	SEVERE SEPSIS
Diagnosis Code:	45-00
Comorbid Diagnosis:
Charlson Comorbid coding (pre ICD10):
Program:	Critical Care and Medicine
Status:	Currently Collected

Guideline:

Severe Sepsis is organ failure (as defined by Septic Shock) but excludes hypotension.

• We don't need the vital sign criteria that exist for septic shock to be met to code severe sepsis. Look for signs of organ failure in a patient with probable infection.

How to code

• In the following example, how would you code your pathogen? A patient has severe sepsis resulting from a cystitis. The urine is positive for E.Coli, and the blood culture is negative. While the pathogen for cystitis would be E.Coli, would the pathogen for severe sepsis in this case be a.)negative culture or to again code b.) E.Coli??? Mlagadi 09:00, 2016 September 30 (CDT)
  • You have answered your own question...Cystitis - E.Coli positive, Severe Sepsis - negative blood culture.--CMarks 13:54, 2016 October 3 (CDT)
    • Thanks Con, I thought so. Michelle, I am not sure I understand why this was a question, to be honest. Could you explain to me how else you could have coded it? I am asking to make sure the question would be answered if it came up again. By the way, this is not specific to Sepsis but general to pathogen coding, so if anything needs to be added to clarify for future it should go into Pathogens, maybe a new heading in there. So, if you think something should go in there to clarify this for the future, could you please add it? And, once you have read it, please delete this from here. Thanks! Ttenbergen 17:47, 2016 October 3 (CDT)
      • My other thought on coding this would be to code the severe sepsis as E.Coli as well, because this was the organism that was causing the sepsis, even though the blood culture was negative. If I have a positive blood culture, than I code it as septicemia in addition to my other codes. I didn't think that the terms severe sepsis and septicemia were interchangeable. I will stop doing this, as it seems like this is inconsistent with what other people are collecting. Thanks for clarifying this Con.Mlagadi 07:27, 2016 October 5 (CDT)
• In order to code septicemia you must have a positive blood culture which is not required for severe sepsis or septic shock based on their criteria.--CMarks 12:55, 2016 October 5 (CDT)

Mutually exclusive with Septic Shock

Also see: Septicemia definition.

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This is mutually exclusive with 44-00 Septic Shock.