A81.8Other atypical virus infections of central nervous system

A81.8 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for other atypical virus infections of central nervous system. It belongs to category A81 (atypical virus infections of central nervous system), block A80-A89 (viral and prion infections of the central nervous system) and chapter 1 (certain infectious and parasitic diseases). It is a header code, so it can't be reported by itself; one of its 4 subcodes must be used instead.

Within A81, choose A81.8 (Other atypical virus infections of central nervous system) only when documentation doesn't support a more specific option: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (A81.0), subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (A81.1), progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (A81.2) and atypical virus infection of central nervous system, unspecified (A81.9).

To report this condition, pick the subcode that matches the documentation: A81.81 (Kuru), A81.82 (syndrome), A81.83 (insomnia) and A81.89 (system).

Use an additional code, if applicable, to identify: dementia with anxiety (F02.84, F02.A4, F02.B4, F02.C4), dementia with behavioral disturbance (F02.81-, F02.A1-, F02.B1-, F02.C1-), dementia with mood disturbance (F02.83, F02.A3, F02.B3, F02.C3), dementia with psychotic disturbance (F02.82, F02.A2, F02.B2, F02.C2), dementia without behavioral disturbance (F02.80, F02.A0, F02.B0, F02.C0) and 1 more.

It has been part of ICD-10-CM since the code set took effect on October 1, 2015 and hasn't changed since.