Q: An elderly gentleman falls down stairs and sustains an injury to the neck with paralysis of the upper extremities with some movement of the lower extremities. There is a fracture noted at C5. He is diagnosed with central cord syndrome. Over the next several weeks he slowly regains function of his extremities. How would you code this injury?

Aug 1, 2006 | External | 0 comments

A: Spinal cord injuries should be coded based on the patient’s status at 24 hours. The correct code for this injury is 640214.4 — cord contusion, incomplete cord syndrome, with fracture.

Because the patient does improve, coders frequently want to use the code for transient injuries rather than the correct code for incomplete cord syndrome.

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