Urology Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Reserve 185 for Malignancy

Published on Tue Mar 15, 2011

Question: One of my providers did a TURP on a patient and sent everything to pathology. When I take a look at the path report it says "PIN III." My problem is that the report also says "carcinoma was not identified" so I'm confused about what to report. Which ICD-9 code is best?

Wisconsin Subscriber

Answer: Your postoperative diagnosis for the transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) will most likely be 600.01 (Hypertrophy [benign] of prostate with urinary obstruction and other lower urinary tract symptoms [LUTS ]) -- the reason for the prostatectomy.

As a secondary diagnosis code use 233.4 (Carcinoma in situ of prostate), which represents in situ carcinoma of the prostate, probably a precursor or early form of carcinoma of the prostate and in this case represents an additional incidental finding. You should not assign 185 (Malignant tumor of the prostate) in this situation.

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