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, there is a code Multiple trauma you should use.
- When you use this, you should ALSO code the individual things traumatized, e.g. leg, arm, head, etc.
- With multiple trauma you should link the Multiple trauma code and all the individual things traumatized with the same priority
- And in this case, assuming that they all have the same mechanism of injury (e.g. Mechanism of injury: motorcyclist), then you'd also link with that mechanism code.
- If the multiple trauma is the primary admit diagnosis, then among this group of linked ICD10 codes, you the choice of what is Primary Admit Diagnosis would be either the Multiple trauma or the "worst" thing injured, e.g. Brain injury, diffuse (TBI), injury/trauma