# Injury nerve



## PLAIDMAN (Dec 17, 2012)

I may be confusing myself here..

I need dx code for traumatic injury to nerve (foot); I am looking at the beginning "Injury to nerve and spinal cord" section, where it says "includes" to the right of the bracket it says "with open wound" - does this mean I can ONLY use this code if there is an open wound present?  What if there WAS an open wound 1yr ago.....now just nerve injury?

I want to use 956.9...but no open wound present at this time.  It is late effect of contusion....now with "traumatic neuropraxia"

Any help would be appreciated !


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## kivbar16 (Dec 17, 2012)

"with open wound" means just that: that a wound is currently open.  You will have to use a late effect code for your dx.


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## dclark7 (Dec 18, 2012)

"With open wound" is in parentheses which makes it a non-essential modifier.  The non-essential modifier may be present in the description without affecting the code assignment.  This information is in the ICD-9-CM Official Conventions.

However, I do agree that a late effect code is more appropriate in this instance.


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## mitchellde (Dec 18, 2012)

for late effects which is what you have here per the documentation for ICD-9 CM you never code the acute wound you code the neuropraxia followed by the code for late effect of the injury (905-909)
For ICD-10 CM however you will need to code the neuropraxia then code the original injury code with the 7th character S plus the external cause of the injury with the 7th character S.


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