Diseases of the respiratory system
This chapter includes disorders affecting the airways and lungs, from upper respiratory tract infections to chronic pulmonary diseases. It begins with acute conditions such as sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia, and extends to chronic conditions like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and interstitial lung disease.
Asthma and COPD coding often includes severity classification and whether the patient is experiencing an acute exacerbation. Pneumonia codes may identify the causative organism when known. The chapter distinguishes between infectious respiratory diseases (unless primarily classified in A00-B99) and chronic structural lung diseases. It also includes occupational lung diseases and respiratory failure.
Respiratory disorders can be acute and self-limited or progressive and life-threatening. Because breathing is fundamental to survival, diseases in this chapter frequently result in emergency visits and hospitalizations. Accurate coding supports monitoring of public health trends (e.g., seasonal influenza) and chronic disease management programs for conditions like asthma.
Clinical & Coding Guidelines
Chapter Notes
- When a respiratory condition is described as occurring in more than one site and is not specifically indexed, it should be classified to the lower anatomic site (e.g. tracheobronchitis to bronchitis in J40).
Excludes2 (Partial exclusion)
- certain conditions originating in the perinatal period (P04-P96)
- certain infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99)
- complications of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (O00-O9A)
- congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities (Q00-Q99)
- endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (E00-E88)
- injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes (S00-T88)
- neoplasms (C00-D49)
- smoke inhalation (T59.81-)
- symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (R00-R94)