Template:ICD10 Guideline Trauma w mechanism
Explanation of trauma and mechanism co-coding.
Traumas and their Mechanisms
- There are numerous codes for "mechanical" injuries to various body parts.
- You can recognize these codes because their names include one or another term such as: "injury/trauma" or "traumatic".
- What these have in common is that they are caused by an "external agent" -- such as being hit by a car, falling on your head, etc.
- For these codes, it is required that the injury be combined with the external mechanism of the injury:
- In some cases, the mechanism is actually iatrogenic, see Iatrogenic codes in ICD10.
Regarding Multiple Trauma
- When a person has multiple body areas traumatized, code Multiple trauma
- When using Multiple trauma also code the individual things traumatized, e.g. leg, arm, head, etc.
- Code Multiple trauma and all the individual things traumatized as Combined ICD10 codes
- And in this case, assuming that they all have the same mechanism of injury (e.g. Mechanism of injury: motorcyclist), then you'd also code that Mechanism code as the same Combined ICD10 codes.
- If the multiple trauma is the primary admit diagnosis, then among this group of linked ICD10 codes, the Primary Admit Diagnosis would be either the Multiple trauma or the "worst" thing injured, e.g. Brain injury, diffuse (TBI), injury/trauma