# Spinal stenosis vs foraminal stenosis



## amandamcelrath (Oct 8, 2015)

We need advice with the stenosis category.  

I work in a spine center, and we have doctors who will document "lumbar foraminal stenosis".  When I search this out, I am directed toward the M99 category, but they do not give me enough detail to determine if it is osseous/subluxation or connective tissue/disc.  So when they try to enter their diagnosis in the medical record as foraminal stenosis, it is automatically pulling a M99.83 ("Other biomechanical lesions of lumbar region").  We are nervous about using M99.83 because it seems so vague.  Would we be better off to go with "spinal stenosis" in the M48.06 category?  Does the "spinal stenosis" encompass any type of stenosis, or if we have specifics like "foraminal" should we be trying to go for the M99 category and ask them to add more detail to their documentation?


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