R10.81Abdominal tenderness

R10.81 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for abdominal tenderness. It belongs to category R10 (abdominal and pelvic pain), block R10-R19 (symptoms and signs involving the digestive system and abdomen) and chapter 18 (symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified). It is a header code, so it can't be reported by itself; one of its 8 subcodes must be used instead.

Within R10.8 (other abdominal pain), R10.81 is specifically for abdominal tenderness. Related codes cover rebound abdominal tenderness (R10.82), colic (R10.83), generalized abdominal pain (R10.84), abdominal pain of multiple sites (R10.85) and flank tenderness (R10.8A).

To report this condition, pick the subcode that matches the documentation: R10.811 (tenderness), R10.812 (tenderness), R10.813 (tenderness), R10.814 (tenderness), R10.815 (tenderness), R10.816 (tenderness), R10.817 (tenderness) and R10.819 (unspecified site).

The conditions in its Excludes2 note aren't part of R10.81, but may be coded alongside it if the patient has both: pain localized to other parts of lower abdomen (R10.3-) and pain localized to upper abdomen (R10.1-).

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