Orthopedic Coding Alert

Don’t miss these Excludes2 notes.

Patients suffering from recurrent dislocation of the shoulder have repeated partial or total separation of the head of humerus from the glenoid cavity.

Currently, you should report 718.31 (Recurrent dislocation of joint of shoulder region).

However, your options expand after October 1. You will have instead:

• M24.411, Recurrent dislocation, right shoulder
  
• M24.412, Recurrent dislocation, left shoulder
  
• M24.419, Recurrent dislocation, unspecified shoulder
  

ICD-10-CM Change: In ICD-9-CM, you have code to reflect recurrent dislocation of the shoulder (718.31), but ICD-10-CM expands your options (M24.411-M24.419) based on whether the condition occurs in the right or left shoulder. You also have an unspecified code, but you should always code to the highest specificity.

Documentation: You may see your provider document the “recurrent subluxation of the joint” in the shoulder region.

Here is how you will find these codes in the Alphabetic Index:

Dislocation (articular)

- recurrent M24.40
- - shoulder M24.41-

Coder tips: Under the M24.4 category (Recurrent dislocation of joint), you will find an Excludes2 note explaining that you probably won’t report any of these codes with the recurrent dislocation of patella (M22.0-M22.1) and recurrent vertebral dislocation (M43.3-, M43.4, M43.5-). If your provider documents the patient has both conditions, then you can report them.