Wiki T12 fracture

[ancoleman22]

So this case has me going back and forth on which way to code it! The patient is in the hospital due to a fall. They discover a T12 compression fracture that "could be acute." They state in documentation "Fall/t12 compression fracture" but other then the way stated above it never confirms that the compression fracture is due to the fall. Which code would you use? Traumatic fx or the pathological fx? Thanks!

 

[krystle8402]

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Since it states "could be acute", I wouldn't think you would use the traumatic fx. It's probable that it was from the fall, but I wouldn't feel comfortable using a traumatic fx code unless documentation stated. Curious to know what others think. . .

 

[mhstrauss]

Is there any disease documented that the fracture could be attributed to? If not, then it's not a pathological fracture.