Wiki Venous ulcers

[becka95]

I have doctors that like to document that the patient has a venous ulcer. They do not state the presents of varicose veins or past history of varicose veins. I have been coding the encounters as 459.81 with the location of the ulcer. They argue that a venous ulcer is a venous statsis ulcer and should be coded as 454.0. My thought is that unless they document the varicose veins, I cannot use 454.0.

Does anyone have documention or a website that specifies the documentation requirements for coding the use of 454.0 vs 459.81?

Thank you!