ICD-9-CM Vol. 1 Diagnostic Codes - 338.18 - Other acute postoperative pain. Code Information. 338.18 - Other acute postoperative pain. The above description is abbreviated.
Short description: Acute postop pain NEC. ICD-9-CM 338.18 is a billable medical code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis on a reimbursement claim, however, 338.18 should only be used for claims with a date of service on or before September 30, 2015.
Billable Thru Sept 30/2015. Non-Billable On/After Oct 1/2015. Short description: Acute postop pain NEC. ICD-9-CM 338.18 is a billable medical code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis on a reimbursement claim, however, 338.18 should only be used for claims with a date of service on or before September 30, 2015.
ICD-9 Code 338.18 Other acute postoperative pain. ICD-9 Index; Chapter: 320–359; Section: 338; Block: 338 Pain, not elsewhere classified; 338.18 - Acute postop pain NEC
ICD-9 Code 338.28 Other chronic postoperative pain. ICD-9 Index; Chapter: 320–359; Section: 338; Block: 338 Pain, not elsewhere classified; 338.28 - Chronic postop pain NEC
338.28 is a legacy non-billable code used to specify a medical diagnosis of other chronic postoperative pain. This code was replaced on September 30, 2015 by its ICD-10 equivalent.
The following crosswalk between ICD-9 to ICD-10 is based based on the General Equivalence Mappings (GEMS) information:
After any operation, you'll have some side effects. There is usually some pain with surgery. There may also be swelling and soreness around the area that the surgeon cut. Your surgeon can tell you which side effects to expect.
General Equivalence Map Definitions#N#The ICD-9 and ICD-10 GEMs are used to facilitate linking between the diagnosis codes in ICD-9-CM and the new ICD-10-CM code set. The GEMs are the raw material from which providers, health information vendors and payers can derive specific applied mappings to meet their needs.
Postoperative pain not associated with a specific postoperative complication is reported with a code from Category G89, Pain not elsewhere classified, in Chapter 6, Diseases of the Nervous System and Sense Organs. There are four codes related to postoperative pain, including:
Postoperative pain typically is considered a normal part of the recovery process following most forms of surgery. Such pain often can be controlled using typical measures such as pre-operative, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory medications; local anesthetics injected into the operative wound prior to suturing; postoperative analgesics;
There are a number of postoperative complications that may be the cause either acute or chronic pain. The health record must be reviewed carefully to determine that a cause-and-effect relationship exists between the complication and the pain. Examples of postoperative complications that might cause excessive postoperative pain include: 1 Postoperative infection (T81.4XX-); 2 Foreign body accidentally left in body following a procedure (T81.5-); and 3 Complications of prosthetic devices, implants, and grafts (T82.-, T83.-, T84.-, T85.-).
Lauri Gray, RHIT, CPC, has worked in the health information management field for 30 years. She began her career as a health records supervisor in a multi-specialty clinic. Following that she worked in the managed care industry as a contracting and coding specialist for a major HMO. Most recently she has worked as a clinical technical editor of coding and reimbursement print and electronic products. She has also taught medical coding at the College of Eastern Utah. Areas of expertise include: ICD-10-CM, ICD-10-PCS, ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure coding, physician coding and reimbursement, claims adjudication processes, third-party reimbursement, RBRVS and fee schedule development. She is a member of the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA).