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Wiki Avulsion Fracture

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ginger43

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Do you code an avulsion fracture as an open fracture, or is it best to use 2 separate dx codes - wound, open & fracture???
To me an open fracture is obvious, but avulsion codes out as wound open.

Please help!
Thanks!!
:confused:
 
Hi,

When you check the alphabetic index in ICD 9 CM,

Main term Avulsion
Sub term Fracture : see fracture by site

Avulsion is an open wound included in Fracture, which doesn't mean that the fracture is open.

see the note below:

"Closed" includes the following descriptions of fractures, with or without delayed healing, unless they are specified as open or compound:

comminuted
depressed
elevated
fissured
greenstick
impacted
linear
simple
slipped epiphysis
spiral
unspecified

"Open" includes the following descriptions of fractures, with or without delayed healing:
compound
infected
missile
puncture
with foreign body

And when you check the main term fracture in the book, you can see the "avulsion" in brackets (non-essential modifiers), which mean a simple avulsion does not affect the code assignment.

Here you can code only the fracture closed.

Hope it helps!

Thara L CPC H
 
So is it in the guidelines anywhere that avulsion fractures are coded as fractures or as complete ligament tears?

Peace
?_?
 
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