Mediastinum, primary malignancy
ICD10 Diagnosis | |
Dx: | Mediastinum, primary malignancy |
ICD10 code: | C38.3 |
Pre-ICD10 counterpart: | Mediastinum CA |
Charlson/ALERT Scale: | Any malignancy, including lymphoma and leukemia, except of skin |
APACHE Como Component: | none |
APACHE Acute Component: | 2019-0: Thoracic surgery for neoplasm, 2019-0: Neoplasm |
Start Date: | |
Stop Date: | |
External ICD10 Documentation |
This diagnosis is a part of ICD10 collection.
Additional Info
- A mediastinal tumor is a tumor in the mediastinum, the cavity that separates the lungs from the rest of the chest. It contains the heart, esophagus, trachea, thymus, and aorta. The most common mediastinal masses are neurogenic tumors (20% of mediastinal tumors), usually found in the posterior mediastinum, followed by thymoma (15–20%) located in the anterior mediastinum
Includes
- thymoma
- mediastinal germ cell tumor
Using ICD10 Malignancy Codes as a Comorbid Diagnosis
- Any cancer/malignancy (either a "solid tumor" or a leukemia/lymphoma/bone marrow malignancy/"liquid tumor", i.e. any ICD10 code from C00-C99) can be a comorbid diagnosis --- BUT it's vital to distinguish malignancies in this category based on whether they are believed to be cured or not.
- If it's still present (or believed to be present), then just include the code for the specific cancer as a comorbid diagnosis.
- If INSTEAD, it's presumed cured, then in the "bin" of comorbid diagnoses combine the code for the specific cancer with this code: Past history, cancer (any type), believed cured
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Metastases
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Regarding Presumptive Diagnosis of Malignancy
- Rarely a presumptive diagnosis is made without any tissue confirmation. This generally occurs with:
- risk of obtaining tissue is very high
- plan would be palliative regardless
- patient would refuse care regardless.
- Our issue for how to code a presumed malignancy without definitive histopathologic proof is this:
- If the physicians are going to proceed with a treatment plan without that definitive histopathologic proof --- then code whatever is their best guess about what is present. Example: believed to be lung cancer with a big brain met, and they've decided NOT to do any biopsy but to give palliative radiation therapy, then you'd code lung cancer, and met to brain.
- If the plan is to obtain a definitive histopathologic diagnosis soon or in the future, then instead code: Neoplasm of uncertain behavior (i.e. not clear if benign or malignant), NOS
"work-up for cancer"
If the cancer has not been confirmed then it should not be coded as cancer. Code relevant test abnormal test results or symptoms.
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Alternate ICD10s to consider coding instead or in addition
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Candidate Combined ICD10 codes
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Related CCI Codes
Data Integrity Checks (automatic list)
none found
Related Articles
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