An Assessment of International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification, Codes Used to...

The diagnosis coding system for health care providers that is used in the United States recently converted from the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision (ICD-9), to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). The authors are unaware of any studies specifically evaluating the utility and specificity of ICD-10-CM codes in the pediatric orthopedic literature. The authors chose 20 diagnoses that are commonly seen in general pediatric orthopedic practice. The study had two goals: (1) to evaluate the adequacy of these codes to describe the diagnoses and (2) to offer advice on the most appropriate code to use when the ideal code does not exist. A list of 20 diagnoses that are commonly seen in general pediatric orthopedic practice were chosen by 2 fellowship-trained pediatric orthopedic surgeons. Each author independently evaluated the appropriate ICD-10-CM code for each diagnosis. The authors came to a consensus regarding whether the codes were adequate and agreed on an appropriate alternate code when the ideal one did not exist. One common condition had no code (accessory navicular), necessitating the recommendation of a nonspecific code. Other seemingly dissimilar conditions were described by the same code (acetabular dysplasia/femoral anteversion, Osgood-Schlatter disease/Blount's disease). Numerous codes lacked specificity, and the option of laterality was not uniform. Compared with the ICD-9, the ICD-10-CM allows more diagnostic options for these 20 common pediatric orthopedic conditions. The authors identified several areas for improvement. Involvement of subspecialty societies could guide future endeavors to improve this new coding system. [Orthopedics. 2020;43(2):e87-e90.].