Anesthesia Coding Alert

Diagnosis code choice will remain simple in 2014.

When your anesthesia provider is involved in surgery to treat an intracranial or intraspinal abscess after ICD-10 goes into effect, coding will be simple. Just remember that the abscess codes also apply to granulomas.

Map the Codes in ICD-9 and ICD-10

When you currently report an intracranial abscess under ICD-9, you select diagnosis 324.0 (Intracranial abscess). This code applies to an embolic abscess in both the cerebrum and cerebellum, and represents an abscess in any location (epidural, extradural, otogenic, or subdural). The corresponding ICD-10 code will be G06.0 (Intracranial abscess and granuloma).

Similarly, you report ICD-9 code 324.1 (Intraspinal abscess) for an embolic intraspinal abscess in any part of the spinal cord (epidural, extradural, or subdural). The corresponding ICD-10 code will be G06.1 (Intraspinal abscess and granuloma).

How is ICD-10 different? The most noticeable difference in the ICD-10 codes for intracranial and intraspinal abscess is the inclusion of the term “granuloma” in the descriptors. That alerts you to reporting these codes for granulomas in the cranium and spine regardless of the location of the granuloma.

Check for Different Types of Abscess

Note that these diagnosis codes (for either ICD-9 or ICD-10) don’t include tuberculous intracranial and intraspinal abscess. For these conditions, you currently report 013.3x (Tuberculosis abscess of brain) for an intracranial abscess or 013.5x (Tuberculosis abscess of spinal cord) for an intraspinal abscess. The diagnoses will shift to A17.81 (Tuberculoma of brain and spinal cord) or another code that might be more specific, depending on the physician’s documentation.