Radiology Coding Alert

Question: What are the 2017 updates for diagnosis codes for intestinal infarction? How can we code for acute diffuse intestinal infarction?

Georgia Subscriber

Answer: There are 2017 updates that impact your diagnosis codes for ischemia and infarction of the small and large intestine. Prior to Oct 2016, you had one single code for this diagnosis, K55.0 (Acute vascular disorders of intestine). With the 2017 updates, you have a very precise code for acute diffuse infarction of the intestine, K55.042 (Diffuse acute infarction of large intestine).

Ischemia vs. infarction: Ischemia describes a restriction of blood supply to tissues, while an infarction is the death of tissue due to complete loss of blood supply.

2017 updates: You now have code subcategory K55.0-, (Acute vascular disorders of intestine…) with four new options that cater to the diagnosis of acute ischemia or infarction of small or the large intestines.

Here are the four new codes:

• K55.01- (Acute [reversible] ischemia of small intestine)
• K55.02- (Acute infarction of small intestine), which also describes gangrene or necrosis of the small intestine
• K55.03- (Acute [reversible] ischemia of large intestine) which includes acute fulminant ischemic colitis and subacute ischemic colitis
• K55.04- (Acute infarction of large intestine), which covers gangrene and necrosis of the large intestine, too.

Plus, each one of these five-digit codes comes with three new sixth character options:

• 1 (Focal segmental)
• 2 (Diffuse)
• 9 (Acute)