Posted by Thomas/Munich (195.27.213.20) on March 07, 2001 at 14:29:29:
In Reply to: Diagnostic Codes posted by John B on March 07, 2001 at 07:21:36:
Dear John,
ICD 346.2 = Migraine, Variants = correct for CH as far as there is no other ICD Key for CH there so far .
- Bing-Horton-Syndrome
- Erythroprosopalgia
- Histamin Headache
- Ophthalmic Migraine
- Cluster Headache
(the first four a.m. names are all together old synonyms used earlier for the CH.)
Then there are also subsumed:
- Basilar Migraine and
- Neuralgia of the Ciliar Nerve
which are different diseases.
I agree that the description of CH as "Migraine, Variants" is misleadig and that's probably one of the reasons for many misunderstandings with the
health insurances, too, but there is no other possibility to encode diseases so far than with the valid ICD keys, and doctors worldwide have to encode !
Meanwhile they are waiting for years for a better and less stupid ICD list- it's said that the valid one was not composed by medical doctors...- but nobody knows when and whether at all it will come or not, probably not even the WHO. And: Not only the key for CH is stupid, thousands of other keys are even more stupid and the whole structure of the present ICD is not logical.
ATB ! Thomas