Anesthesia Coding Alert
Reader Questions:
Spinal Accessory Nerve Lesion and Long Thoracic Nerve Injury
Published on Sun Dec 01, 2002
Question: What are the ICD-9 codes for a spinal accessory nerve lesion and a long thoracic nerve injury?
California Subscriber
Answer: The spinal nerve lesion can be coded as 355.9 (Mononeuritis of unspecified site). Another possibility is 239.8 (Neoplasms of unspecified nature; other specified sites). The 239 category classifies neoplasms of unspecified morphology and behavior by site, and includes "growth" NOS (not otherwise specified), neoplasm NOS, new growth NOS, and tumor NOS.
To code the long thoracic nerve injury, you may use 954.8 (Injury to other nerve[s] of trunk, excluding shoulder and pelvic girdles, other specified nerve[s] of trunk). Because these codes are somewhat vague, you should ask the patient's medical insurance carrier for its coding requirements.
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