General Surgery Coding Alert

Pinpoint more details to choose the right code.

When your general surgery practice switches to ICD-10, your surgeon will need to document with lots more diagnostic detail when performing procedures such as incision and drainage of an abscess. 

That’s because ICD-10 provides far more detail for these conditions than ICD-9.

Study Face Example

For instance, if your surgeon drains an abscess from a patient’s face, you currently have just one ICD-9 code to describe the condition: 682.0 (Cellulitis and abscess of face).

All that changes under ICD-10. Instead of one code as in ICD-9, you’ll have the following three ICD-10 codes to choose from based on the details of the condition:

• L03.211 — Cellulitis of face
• L03.212 — Acute lymphangitis of face
• L02.01 — Cutaneous abscess of face.

Beware: The face excludes the mouth for purposes of these abscess codes. ICD-9’s 528.3 (Cellulitis and abscess of oral soft tissues) crosswalks to ICD-10’s K12.2 (Cellulitis and abscess of mouth).