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Primary Care Coding Alert

Reader Questions:

Find Syndrome for Hair Around Digit

Published on Mon Jan 07, 2008

Question: A 3-month-old had hair wrapped around her toe that was constricting blood flow. The FP sent the baby to the ER. What diagnosis code should I use? Wisconsin Subscriber Answer: When a hair or other thread becomes tied around a toe or finger tightly, so as to put the digit at risk of damage, the medical condition is called "Hair tourniquet." If you look under "Syndrome - hair tourniquet" in the ICD-9 tabular index, the listings direct you to a superficial injury by site code. For a noninfected toe, you should use 917.8 (Other and unspecified superficial injury of foot and toes without mention of infection). To identify the injury's external cause, "constriction caused by hair", you may also add E928.4 (Other and unspecified environmental and accidental causes; external constriction caused by hair).
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