Q:You receive a patient with a stab wound to the chest. He says it was a short knife. The wound is actively bleeding. Examination and CXR are negative for pneumothorax, however the patient’s blood pressure is dropping. In the OR a transection of the internal mammary artery is evident and repaired.

A: 422008.3; the internal mammary artery is found under “other named arteries” in the chest; a transection is a major injury; even without blood loss information, major is the correct choice. Just a review of terms – in the dictionary the separator “;” means “or” so that each of the components listed under major is not required but any of them being present is enough to qualify for this code