L03Cellulitis and acute lymphangitis

L03 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for cellulitis and acute lymphangitis. It belongs to block L00-L08 (infections of the skin and subcutaneous tissue) and chapter 12 (diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue). It is a header code, so it can't be reported by itself; one of its 6 subcodes must be used instead.

To report this condition, pick the subcode that matches the documentation: L03.0 (of finger and toe), L03.1 (of other parts of limb), L03.2 (of face and neck), L03.3 (of trunk), L03.8 (of other sites) and L03.9 (unspecified).

The conditions in its Excludes2 note aren't part of L03, but may be coded alongside it if the patient has both: cellulitis of anal and rectal region (K61.-), cellulitis of external auditory canal (H60.1), cellulitis of eyelid (H00.0), cellulitis of female external genital organs (N76.4) and 7 more.

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