Question

Sandy tyler was admitted to the hospital on july 4 for treatment of a fractured pelvis, which he sustained while parasailing earlier in the day. on july 5, his attending physician (an orthopedic surgeon) wrote a physician's order requesting a neurologist to consult with the patient regarding numbness of his left foot.which diagnosis should the orthopedic surgeon report to justify inpatient e/m services

Answer 1

In order to justify a diagnosis the attending physician would likely choose a neuralgia since the area of nerve compression has not been specifically identified. In this case the ICD-10 code that would represent a neuralgia and neuritis, unspecified, would be M79.2. This code would exclude lumbosacral radiculitis (M54.1), radiculitis NOS (M54.1), and sciatica (M54.3-M54.4). Once the site of nerve compression has been identified a more specific diagnosis would be appropriate.