S79.10Unspecified physeal fracture of lower end of femur

S79.10 is the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for unspecified physeal fracture of lower end of femur. It belongs to category S79 (other and unspecified injuries of hip and thigh), block S70-S79 (injuries to the hip and thigh) and chapter 19 (injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes). It is a header code, so it can't be reported by itself; one of its 3 subcodes must be used instead.

Within S79.1, choose S79.10 (Unspecified physeal fracture of lower end of femur) only when documentation doesn't support a more specific option: Salter-Harris Type I physeal fracture of lower end of femur (S79.11), Salter-Harris Type II physeal fracture of lower end of femur (S79.12), Salter-Harris Type III physeal fracture of lower end of femur (S79.13), Salter-Harris Type IV physeal fracture of lower end of femur (S79.14) and other physeal fracture of lower end of femur (S79.19).

Codes in this range require a 7th character: A for initial encounter for closed fracture, D for subsequent encounter for fracture with routine healing, G for subsequent encounter for fracture with delayed healing, K for subsequent encounter for fracture with nonunion, P for subsequent encounter for fracture with malunion and S for sequela. Use placeholder "X" characters to fill any empty positions before the 7th character.

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