G89.18

G89.18 diagnosis code: Other acute postprocedural pain

The ICD-10 G89.18 diagnosis code is used to designate other acute postprocedural pain. This is a standard ICD-10-CM code used on patients who experience pain after undergoing a surgical procedure. It is part of the other disorders of the nervous system category.

Feeling pain after undergoing a surgical procedure is common and considered an expected outcome. Acute postprocedural pain refers to the pain that patients immediately feel after surgery and after their anesthetics wear off. This pain should last for, at most, three months and lessen over time.

Is G89.18 billable?

Yes. This ICD-10 code is valid and billable.

Clinical information

Postprocedural pain, sometimes called surgical or postoperative pain, is a type of pain that patients are guaranteed to feel after a surgical procedure. It's unavoidable for anyone undergoing surgery. Surgeons and their teams will even inform patients that postprocedural pain is an expected outcome.

This type of pain can either be acute or chronic. In the case of G89.18, the pain is acute, which, as mentioned earlier, is felt as soon as the anesthetics wear off. This pain should only last for three months, and the severity of the pain should become weaker as time passes.

The postprocedural pain will be considered chronic if it persists longer than three months. There's a different ICD-10 code for this.

Synonyms include:

• Acute postmastectomy pain
• Acute postoperative pain
• Pain after cesarean section, postpartum (after childbirth)
• Pain due to late effect of radiation
• Pain postpartum
• Pain postpartum after cesarean section
• Postherniorrhaphy pain syndrome
• Postoperative pain, acute
• Postradiotherapy pain

Other ICD-10 codes commonly used for postprocedural pain

G89.28: Other chronic postprocedural pain is the only other ICD-10 code used for postprocedural pain. As its name says, it's meant to be used once a patient's postprocedural pain becomes chronic.