What you can do
While an umbilical hernia may not be dangerous, adults should still talk to their doctor if they notice one developing. A developing umbilical hernia just looks like a lump, and any new lumps may be a symptom of something more serious. That’s why it’s important to get them checked out by a medical professional.
Symptoms of a strangulated umbilical hernia include:
There is a separate, specific code — 49525 Repair inguinal hernia, sliding, any age — for the repair of a reducible, sliding inguinal hernia. If the hernia is incarcerated or strangulated, however, 49525 does not apply. Instead, you would revert to 49496, 49501, 49507, or 49521, as appropriate.
Complications can occur when the protruding abdominal tissue becomes trapped (incarcerated) and can no longer be pushed back into the abdominal cavity. This reduces the blood supply to the section of trapped intestine and can lead to abdominal pain and tissue damage.
An irreducible hernia - also known as an incarcerated hernia - is a hernia that cannot be pushed back, manually, through the opening in the abdomen. An irreducible hernia is trapped outside the abdomen muscle wall. Although some irreducible hernias are not painful the bulge under the skin can grow hard.
An incarcerated hernia or obstructed hernia is one in which the tissues have become trapped. This is also called a non-reducible hernia and is very serious because it may lead to intestine or tissue strangulation.
Other and unspecified ventral hernia with obstruction, without gangrene. K43. 6 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes.
Umbilical hernias are very common in children but incarceration is rare. Incarceration is a risk in children younger than 6 months with medium hernias. The underlying mechanism may be similar to that in Richter's hernias.
A hernia is considered incarcerated if the hernia cannot be massaged back into the original cavity. Incarcerated inguinal hernias usually cause swelling in the groin region, and some may show redness.
In the event of a sudden increase in intra-abdominal pressure, hernial contents are squeezed through a narrow hernia sac neck into the sac. The subsequent recoil of sac neck entraps the hernial contents, preventing them from returning into the abdomen, and incarcerated hernia occurs.
Incarcerated hernia. If the contents of the hernia become trapped in the weak point in the abdominal wall, the contents can obstruct the bowel, leading to severe pain, nausea, vomiting, and the inability to have a bowel movement or pass gas.
Umbilical hernia without obstruction or gangrene 1 K42.9 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes. 2 The 2021 edition of ICD-10-CM K42.9 became effective on October 1, 2020. 3 This is the American ICD-10-CM version of K42.9 - other international versions of ICD-10 K42.9 may differ.
The 2022 edition of ICD-10-CM K42.9 became effective on October 1, 2021.
K40.0 is a non-billable ICD-10 code for Bilateral inguinal hernia, with obstruction, without gangrene. It should not be used for HIPAA-covered transactions as a more specific code is available to choose from below.
DO NOT include the decimal point when electronically filing claims as it may be rejected. Some clearinghouses may remove it for you but to avoid having a rejected claim due to an invalid ICD-10 code, do not include the decimal point when submitting claims electronically.