# Age indeterminate fracture Coding



## Cuteyr (Jun 5, 2013)

Hi,

The reason for study of a AP pelvis x-ray is to check left hip joint space and the impression reads as "Subcapital left hip fracture,age indeterminate.
What is the icd-9 cm for this?


Other patient case's impression reads as Chronic slightly displaced left malgaigne equivalent fracture of the left hemipelvis.
What is the icd-9 cm for this?


Please help..


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## cstinson (Aug 1, 2013)

A subcapital hip fracture is a break at the top of the long thigh bone (femur), where it fits
into the hip socket. It is also called a “fractured neck of femur”.
This type of fracture occurs mostly in older people.  Age indeterminate (from what i've been taught) simply means they aren't sure how long ago the fracture occured. (could be new or old) .
When I entered your description above on the subcapital hip fx my coding software leads me to 820.09.

Chronic means longer than 6 months duration where acute, would mean the fx occured recently.  Displaced means it's not alligned where it should be, or veering off to one side.  A Malgaigne fracture is an unstable type of pelvic fracture, which involves one hemipelvis.  Hemi in med term means half, so I'm assuming that it only is on one side of the pelvis.  I also saw other definitions for this that say it involves multiple fx's of the pelvis, so I would probably say pick what ever fits the best in the 808 series.  Hope that helps.


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