Obstetrics (1) ICD-10-PCS

About Section 1

The seven characters in the obstetrics section have the same meaning as in the medical and surgical section:

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

Obstetrics procedure codes have a first character value of "1". The second character value for body system is Pregnancy. The root operations Change, Drainage, Extraction, Insertion, Inspection, Removal, Repair, Reposition, Resection and Transplantation are used in the obstetrics section, and have the same meaning as in the medical and surgical section. The obstetrics section also includes two additional root operations, Abortion and Delivery, defined below:

• Abortion: Artificially terminating a pregnancy
• Delivery: Assisting the passage of the products of conception from the genital canal

A cesarean section is not its own unique root operation, because the underlying objective is Extraction (i.e., pulling out all or a portion of a body part). The body part values in the obstetrics section are:

• Products of conception
• Products of conception, retained
• Products of conception, ectopic

The obstetrics section includes procedures performed on the products of conception only; procedures on the pregnant female are coded in the medical and surgical section (e.g.,episiotomy). The term "products of conception" refers to all physical components of a 15 pregnancy, including the fetus, amnion, umbilical cord and placenta. There is no differentiation of the products of conception based on gestational age. Thus, the specification of the products of conception as a zygote, embryo or fetus, or the trimester of the pregnancy, is not part of the procedure code but can be found in the diagnosis code.