ICD-10-CM › S00-T88 › T66-T78 › T71 Asphyxiation › T71.2

T71.2

Asphyxiation due to systemic oxygen deficiency due to low oxygen content in ambient air

Not billableICD-10-CM diagnosis code.

This code exists but cannot be submitted on its own. It groups the more specific codes beneath it.

A category header for its whole life, FY2016 onwards. It has never been valid for submission on its own.

Submit one of these 5 more specific codes instead:

  • T71.20 Asphyxiation due to systemic oxygen deficiency due to low oxygen content in ambient air due to unspecified cause (also a header)
  • T71.21 Asphyxiation due to cave-in or falling earth (also a header)
  • T71.22 Asphyxiation due to being trapped in a car trunk (also a header)
  • T71.23 Asphyxiation due to being trapped in a (discarded) refrigerator (also a header)
  • T71.29 Asphyxiation due to being trapped in other low oxygen environment (also a header)

This code requires a seventh character. See the rule below.

What has happened to this code

Every change the publisher made, from 2012 to now. Entries marked draft are from the pre-implementation releases: ICD-10 took effect on 1 October 2015, so nothing before FY2016 was ever valid on a claim.

  1. FY2012 Added to the draft code set draft Asphyxiation due to systemic oxygen deficiency due to low oxygen content in ambient air

Official coding rules

Published by CDC for FY2027. A rule attached to a category binds every code beneath it, so the rules inherited from this code's ancestors are shown with the code they come from.

Inherited from T71 Asphyxiation

Seventh character required

  • The appropriate 7th character is to be added to each code from category T71

Excludes1 - never coded here

  • acute respiratory distress (syndrome) (J80)
  • anoxia due to high altitude (T70.2)
  • asphyxia NOS (R09.01)
  • asphyxia from carbon monoxide (T58.-)
  • asphyxia from inhalation of food or foreign body (T17.-)
  • asphyxia from other gases, fumes and vapors (T59.-)
  • respiratory distress (syndrome) in newborn (P22.-)

Also known as

  • Mechanical suffocation
  • Traumatic suffocation

Inherited from the T66-T78 section Other and unspecified effects of external causes (T66-T78)

Code also

  • , if applicable, place of occurrence, such as:
  • highway rest stop (Y92.523)
  • school (private) (public) (state) as the place of occurrence of the external cause (Y92.21-)
  • service areas as the place of occurrence of the external cause (Y92.52-)
  • single-family non-institutional (private) house as the place of occurrence of the external cause (Y92.01-)
  • transport vehicle as the place of occurrence of the external cause (Y92.81-)

How CDC's index refers to this code

Wording from the official alphabetic index. Much of it appears nowhere in the code description, which is why a search for the everyday phrase so often finds nothing.

Codes in the same group

CodeDescriptionStatus
T71.1 Asphyxiation due to mechanical threat to breathing Not billable
T71.9 Asphyxiation due to unspecified cause Not billable