Treatment can range from conservative treatment — e.g., bracing — to complex surgery to stabilize the vertebrae and protect the spinal cord from additional damage. When someone with suspected broken vertebrae comes into the emergency department, doctors go to work to determine the damage done and to put a treatment plan in place.
What Is Vertebral Fracture? A spinal fracture is a dislocation or fracture of the vertebrae (backbone) and can occur anywhere along the spine. Most spinal fractures are caused from injury or trauma from car accidents, falls, sports or some sort of high velocity impact.
Unspecified fracture of unspecified thoracic vertebra, initial encounter for closed fracture. S22. 009A is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes. The 2022 edition of ICD-10-CM S22.
Fracture of lumbar vertebra ICD-10-CM S32. 009A is grouped within Diagnostic Related Group(s) (MS-DRG v39.0):
03.
ICD-10-CM Code for Wedge compression fracture of first lumbar vertebra, initial encounter for closed fracture S32. 010A.
M48. 55XA: Collapsed vertebra, not elsewhere classified, thoracolumbar region, initial encounter for fracture (collapse at the junction of the thoracic and lumbar regions)
Wedge compression fracture of fourth lumbar vertebra, subsequent encounter for fracture with nonunion. S32. 040K is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes. The 2022 edition of ICD-10-CM S32.
Unspecified fracture of second lumbar vertebra, initial encounter for open fracture. S32. 029B is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes.
If you have no other documentation about the fracture (e.g. whether this is a pathological or a traumatic fracture), then this would code to category M48. 5 - Compression fracture of vertebra NOS, so I would use M48. 56XA for the lumbar site.
S32. 000A - Wedge compression fracture of unspecified lumbar vertebra [initial encounter for closed fracture] | ICD-10-CM.
Compression fractures of the spine usually occur at the bottom part of the thoracic spine (T11 and T12) and the first vertebra of the lumbar spine (L1). Compression fractures of the spine generally occur from too much pressure on the vertebral body.
In a compression fracture, the vertebral body collapses. The most common type of compression fracture is a wedge fracture, in which the front of the vertebral body collapses but the back does not, meaning that the bone assumes a wedge shape.
Although all compression fractures have an underlying pathology, the term pathologic vertebral compression fracture (pVCF) is traditionally reserved for fractures that result from primary or metastatic spine tumors.
Unspecified fracture of third lumbar vertebra 1 S32.039 should not be used for reimbursement purposes as there are multiple codes below it that contain a greater level of detail. 2 The 2021 edition of ICD-10-CM S32.039 became effective on October 1, 2020. 3 This is the American ICD-10-CM version of S32.039 - other international versions of ICD-10 S32.039 may differ.
Use secondary code (s) from Chapter 20, External causes of morbidity, to indicate cause of injury. Codes within the T section that include the external cause do not require an additional external cause code. Type 1 Excludes.