Orthopedic Coding Alert

Question: When a patient suffers an injured Achilles tendon, what is the correct ICD-10 code for the condition?

Mississippi Subscriber

Answer: It depends on which type of injury the patient sustained, the laterality of the injury, and the stage of the injury treatment at the time of the encounter.

Step 1: Go back and check the notes for evidence of the type of Achilles injury involved. Then, choose from one of these five-character codes to start:

• S86.00- (Unspecified injury of Achilles tendon)
• S86.01- (Strain of Achilles tendon)
• S86.02- (Laceration of Achilles tendon)
• S86.09- (Other specified injury of Achilles tendon)

Step 2: Check the laterality of the Achilles injury, and then report the laterality with the 6th character of your ICD-10 code: 1 for right Achilles, 2 for left, and 9 for unspecified.

Step 3: Use the 7th character to reflect the stage of the injury treatment. Then append one of the following codes, depending on encounter specifics:

• A = initial encounter
• D = subsequent encounter
• S = sequela

So, let’s say that encounter notes indicate that the surgeon treated a patient with a lacerated left Achilles. It is the initial encounter for the patient for treatment of this injury. On the claim, you’d report S86.022A (Laceration of left Achilles tendon, initial encounter) to represent the patient’s condition.