Oncology & Hematology Coding Alert

Question: In a patient with a painless rapidly growing lesion in the oral cavity near the buccal interproximal gingiva, our physician made a diagnosis of pyogenic granuloma. The patient complained of bleeding form the lesion at the touch of the tongue. What is the best diagnosis code for this condition?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: When your clinician diagnoses a patient with pyogenic granuloma (or granuloma pyogenicum), you will need to know that there is no specific ICD-10-CM code to report the condition. You can best report the condition with code K13.4 (Granuloma and granuloma-like lesions of oral mucosa) as this ICD-10-CM code will cover any granuloma or granuloma-like lesions that occur in the oral mucosa.

Check for additional codes: When reporting any conditions that are reported under the parent code K13.- (Other diseases of lip and oral mucosa), you are also supposed to report additional codes that will identify alcohol abuse and dependence (F10.-); exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (Z77.22); history of tobacco use (Z87.891); occupational exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (Z57.31); tobacco dependence (F17.-) or tobacco use (Z72.0). So if your physician identifies a history of tobacco use or dependence or alcohol use or dependence, you can select the applicable codes for these habits.