# acute and chronic sinusitis



## Thilaga

Hi, 
 I have a doubt that if both acute and chronic sinusitis documented in the same encounter how would I code that scenario? As per general ICD9 coding guideline"if the same condition is describe as both acute and chronic, and separate subentries exist in the alphabetic index at the same indentation level code both and sequence acute code first", but for sinusitis there is no subentry for chronic, the term "chronic'' is in parantheses? Shall we code both acute and chronic here.  But they have excluded chronic sinusitis in 461 code category,  anyone  explain  this excludes please, need to code both or code only 461 category?


----------



## MarcusM

Code the acute first, then the chronic. Your doctor is treating an acute flareup of a chronic condition:

ICD-9-CM 461.9 Acute sinusitis, unspecified

ICD-9-CM Diagnosis Code 473.9
Unspecified sinusitis (chronic)
Short description: Chronic sinusitis NOS.


----------

