If we scroll down, I just want to give you a little shot in the arm on CVAs.
CVAs are strokes, and ultimately a stroke is just the blood stopped flowing through
the brain.
Then, the I63 if you look at those codes it’s going to be occlusion and stenosis of cerebral
or those precerebral arteries and stuff, all that vascular system that’s going on.
I63.9 is a cerebral infarction, unspecified, or stroke not otherwise specified.
Now, in ICD-10 it is very specific.
I even went on and I took it off because I gave you all the list of all of these codes
due to this and that, and ultimately is it an embolism?
Is it a thrombosis?
What part of the vascular system inside the brain, the lining of the brain, all of that
in there, but you don’t need to know that to answer this question.
If we scroll down just a little bit more, you do have to determine what type of a stroke
occurred?
There are two things; it was an ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke?
If it was ischemic, then you think it was a clot; if it was hemorrhagic, that means
there’s a bleeding.
It could be a rupture or it could just a bleed.
But, if it is ischemic, then there are two things you need to ask yourself: Is it an
embolic?
A clot from another part of the body.
Or is it like a thrombosis, a clot that forms right there and then blocks off the tissue.
All of this is pertinent if you have to code a stroke.
Not of the history because there’s history to catch all.
But I want you to be very aware of this, “use additional code.”
If you’re going to code an I63 code, then the guidelines tell you because there’s
this new treatment called this tPA.
What it is they get there soon enough.
They can give you this injection of this tPA or this treatment that thins out the blood,
and what could be a massive horrible stroke can almost, not be reversed but the residual
and late effects could be gone.
And so, this is very important; and therefore, they want to know: Was this used?
If it was, you better code it because it makes a difference in the
statistics.
What about the TIA, people get CVA and TIA confused.
Well, a TIA it’s just a little mini-stroke, what it actually means is it kind of temporary.
There’s been a blockage, there’s been a problem with the blood flow but it doesn’t
usually let tissue die.
We think of heart tissue as dying when a person has a heart attack.
Here we’ve got a little brain attack in the vascular system and it usually can last
from like a minute up to 24 hours they said, not usually 24 hours, and sometimes the side
effects go away before they even get to the doctor, but it’s still important you need
to go.
So, that is coded different, that is a G code, G45.9 is kind of a catchall, is a TIA not
otherwise specified.
Do know that they both can have side effects, residuals.
Just summing it up, then that’s the end of the answer sheet.
So, ask yourself: Is this the history?
And they could have had, just because it says recent doesn’t mean that’s different.
That shouldn’t change your way of thinking.
You use the information’s given you and there are no side effects.
And, is that the reason they’re staying at the facility?
Maybe they’re just returning after treatment.
So, I hope that answers your questions, it was really fun to look into this…