Medical and Surgical (0) ICD-10-PCS

About Section 0

The seven characters for medical and surgical procedures have the following meaning:

• Character 1 = Section
• Character 2 = Anatomical Region
• Character 3 = Root Operation
• Character 4 = Body Part
• Character 5 = Approach
• Character 6 = Device
• Character 7 = Qualifier

The medical and surgical section codes represent the vast majority of procedures reported in an inpatient setting. The value of the first character of the Medical and Surgical procedure codes is "0". The second character indicates the general body system (e.g., central nervous system, muscles, skin and breast, tendons, gastrointestinal, etc). The third character indicates the root operation, or specific objective, of the procedure (e.g., bypass, change, dilation, drainage, excision, etc). The fourth character indicates the specific body part on which the procedure was performed (e.g., duodenum). The fifth character indicates the approach used to reach the procedure site (e.g., open). The sixth character indicates whether any device was used and remained at the end of the procedure (e.g., synthetic substitute). The seventh character is a qualifier that may have a specific meaning for a limited range of values.

The first through fifth characters are always assigned a specific value, but the device (sixth character) and the qualifier (seventh character) are not applicable to all procedures. The value Z is used for the sixth and seventh characters to indicate that a specific device or qualifier does not apply to the procedure.

The body systems for medical and surgical section codes are specified in the second character, shown in table 4. In order to provide necessary detail, some body systems are subdivided. For example, body system values K (muscles), L (tendons), M (bursae and ligaments), N (head and facial bones), P (upper bones), Q (lower bones), R (upper joints) and S (lower joints) are divisions of the musculoskeletal system.