Orthopedic Coding Alert

Question: Encounter notes indicate that the patient suffered from a meniscus tear in her left knee. The injury is classified as current. Which ICD-10 code is most appropriate to represent this injury?

South Dakota Subscriber

Answer: Based on the information you have, you can narrow the code choice down a bit. If you want an exact diagnosis code, however, you’re going to need some more encounter specifics.

The choices: Go back and look at the notes, and toggle back to this list to see if you have evidence that could lead you to one of these diagnosis codes:

• S83.201X (Bucket-handle tear of unspecified meniscus, current injury, left knee)
• S83.204X (Other tear of unspecified meniscus, current injury, left knee)
• S83.207X (Unspecified tear of unspecified meniscus, current injury, left knee)
• S83.212X (Bucket-handle tear of medial meniscus, current injury, left knee)
• S83.222X (Peripheral tear of medial meniscus, current injury, left knee)
• S83.232X (Complex tear of medial meniscus, current injury, left knee)
• S83.242X (Other tear of medial meniscus, current injury, left knee)

If you cannot get any more info from the notes or the provider on the specifics of the patient’s injury, your best bet is to go with S83.207X — the most general code from above.

7th character alert: No matter which code you choose to represent the meniscus tear, be sure to fill in the seventh character on your ICD-10 code. The choices for character no. 7 are A (initial encounter), D (subsequent encounter), and S (sequela).