# acquired absence of breast question



## lgardner (Nov 11, 2015)

Hello fellow coders, I'm hoping someone can help me out with this question.

The icd-10 code for acquired absence of breast is Z90.1*, which states "acquired absence of breast and nipple".

Is it appropriate to use this code if it is unknown whether both the breast AND nipple were removed?

How about if you KNOW that the nipple is intact, but the breast was removed?

I know that it is possible to have a nipple-sparing mastectomy, and when my providers mention a patient who is status post mastectomy, they don't, usually, mention the nipple.

Thanks in advance.


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## avon4117 (Nov 12, 2015)

what about Congenital Absence? start with the family codes from Q83....I can understand the Z90.1 because if the breast is gone so is the nipple. But code g83.2 is for the nipple only. Hope this helps


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## mhstrauss (Nov 12, 2015)

lgardner said:


> Hello fellow coders, I'm hoping someone can help me out with this question.
> 
> The icd-10 code for acquired absence of breast is Z90.1*, which states "acquired absence of breast and nipple".
> 
> ...



ICD Guidelines state that the word "and" is to be interpreted to mean either "and" or "or"...see Section A, #14 in the front of your book. So to anwer your question, Z90.1 would be appropriate if either the breast only, nipple only, or both, were removed.

HTH!


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## lgardner (Nov 13, 2015)

avon4117 said:


> what about Congenital Absence? start with the family codes from Q83....I can understand the Z90.1 because if the breast is gone so is the nipple. But code g83.2 is for the nipple only. Hope this helps



Congenital means that it has been absent since birth, so that won't work.

thanks.


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## lgardner (Nov 13, 2015)

mhstrauss said:


> ICD Guidelines state that the word "and" is to be interpreted to mean either "and" or "or"...see Section A, #14 in the front of your book. So to anwer your question, Z90.1 would be appropriate if either the breast only, nipple only, or both, were removed.
> 
> HTH!



thank you!

that's what I figured, but I must be overloaded on reading guidelines and I somehow missed it.


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