ICD code S87.01XS – Crushing injury of right knee

Key takeaways

ICD-10 code S87.01XS is the billable FY2026 code for a crushing injury of the right knee documented as a sequela.

The 7th character S applies only after the original injury has healed, when the patient returns for a condition that injury caused.

Sequela coding takes two codes in order, the residual condition first and S87.01XS second, per Section I.B.10 of the ICD-10-CM guidelines.

S87.01XD and S87.01XS are both valid billable codes, so a claim scrubber will not flag the wrong encounter character for you.

Pabau’s claims software pairs a built-in ICD-10-CM code library with Claim.MD submission, eligibility checks, and ERA reconciliation for US practices.

What S87.01XS covers, at a glance

S87.01XS is valid and billable in the FY2026 ICD-10-CM edition. The table below holds every field a coder or biller checks before the claim goes out.

According to the CDC/NCHS ICD-10-CM web tool, S87.01XS took effect on October 1, 2025 and stays valid through the FY2026 coding year. The S87 group was not revised this edition, so the descriptions and rules below apply as written.

Breaking the code down, character by character

Read left to right, S87.01XS names an injury chapter, a crushing injury of the knee, the right side, and a sequela encounter. Each segment narrows the claim, and the last one carries the most weight.

The X at position 6 is structural rather than clinical. ICD-10-CM inserts it as a dummy character when a code runs shorter than six characters but still needs a 7th character extension. Drop the X and you are left with an invalid code that rejects at submission.

The 7th character decides which encounter you bill

The 7th character tells the payer where in the injury’s life this encounter sits. S designates sequela, so the visit is for a condition caused by the original crush rather than for the crush itself.

All three options for S87.01 are billable, which is exactly why the wrong one slips through.

The S versus D distinction is the most common error in this code family. D applies while the injury is still healing. S applies once healing is complete and a new, persistent condition traces back to the original crush.

A patient in physical therapy six weeks after the injury, still under active care, is S87.01XD. The same patient two years later with chronic knee stiffness is S87.01XS, paired with a code for the stiffness.

The chart below turns that judgment into two questions you can answer straight from the note.

Section I.B.10 of the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines sets the order. The nature of the sequela is sequenced first, and the sequela code follows it. Reverse the two and the claim carries a technical coding error, even when the clinical story behind it is correct.

Where the code sits in the ICD-10-CM hierarchy

S87.01XS sits in category S87, crushing injuries of the lower leg, inside the S80-S89 block for injuries to the knee and lower leg. Tracing that path is worth doing when documentation is thin. It shows which level you can fall back to without overstating the record.

The CMS ICD-10 codes page publishes the annual tabular list and the official code files for each fiscal year, S87 included. Verify against the FY2026 files for any claim dated on or after October 1, 2025.

Related crush injury codes for the knee and lower leg

S87 is built around laterality, so the codes either side of S87.01XS differ by a single detail. Wrong side and wrong encounter type are the two errors that turn up most often across this group.

If you code injuries regularly, our ICD-10-CM code reference is the faster way to check a neighboring category.

S87.00XS belongs on a claim only when laterality genuinely cannot be determined from the record. The guidelines ask for the highest specificity the documentation supports. A documented side means S87.01XS or S87.02XS, and a vaguer code will not hold up under review.

Five clinical scenarios that call for S87.01XS

S87.01XS applies when a patient presents with a condition caused by an earlier right knee crush injury, and that injury has finished healing.

These five situations cover most of what arrives at an orthopedic or rehabilitation front desk.

• Chronic pain after a resolved crush: A patient returns six months after a workplace crush incident with ongoing right knee pain. The wound has healed, so code the pain first and S87.01XS as its cause.
• Post-traumatic osteoarthritis: Imaging shows early osteoarthritic change in the right knee, and the physician attributes it to the prior crush trauma. The arthritis code leads and S87.01XS follows.
• Residual stiffness or lost range of motion: A construction worker returns with persistent range-of-motion deficits long after the crush injury healed. The stiffness code leads, S87.01XS supports it.
• Scarring or fibrosis: Scar tissue around the right knee joint after crush trauma is a textbook sequela. Code the scar or contracture first, then S87.01XS.
• Long-term neurological deficit: Nerve damage documented as a consequence of the right knee crush also qualifies, with the neuropathy code sequenced first.

The thread running through all five is that the original crush is no longer being treated. If any active treatment of the crush is still running, S87.01XD is the code for that visit instead.

Documentation that keeps a sequela claim clean

Section I.B.10 of the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines governs sequela coding across every injury code, S87.01XS included. The core rule does not move. The nature of the sequela is sequenced first, and S87.01XS follows it as the cause.

• Sequencing rule: The nature of the sequela, such as M25.561 for right knee pain or M25.661 for stiffness, is the first-listed or principal diagnosis. S87.01XS is always the second code in that pairing.
• No time limit: No minimum or maximum period has to pass before a sequela code can be assigned. What decides it is the clinical status of the original injury, not the calendar.
• No separate injury code: Do not also report S87.01XA or S87.01XD alongside the sequela code. S87.01XS already implies the prior injury.
• The provider links the conditions: The treating provider has to connect the current condition to the prior crush injury in the note. A coder cannot infer causation from timing alone.
• External cause codes: Codes for the mechanism and place of the original injury can be added where they add value. Those codes carry the S character too. ICD-10-CM itself does not require them.

Payers that audit injury claims flag reversed sequela sequences as a technical coding error, even where the clinical content is right. The fix lives in the note rather than in the claim scrubber, so the provider’s wording is what protects the pairing.

How a sequela claim moves, and where it stalls

A claim carrying S87.01XS travels the same route as any other diagnosis, and it tends to fail at one of five points. Knowing which point saves you from rechecking the whole chain every time one comes back.

1. At the visit. The provider documents the residual condition and states, in words, that it follows the earlier right knee crush injury.
2. At coding. The residual condition takes the first-listed slot. S87.01XS goes second, with the 7th character checked against today’s note.
3. At submission. Both S87.01XS and S87.01XD clear a scrubber, because both are valid billable codes. The edit cannot see which one the note supports.
4. At adjudication. The payer reads the first-listed diagnosis against the service billed. A therapy visit backed only by a sequela code looks unsupported.
5. At audit. Reversed sequencing and a missing causal statement surface here, often months later, as a recoupment request.

Four questions before you hit send will catch most of it:

• Does the first-listed diagnosis name the residual condition, with S87.01XS second?
• Does the 7th character match today’s note rather than the last claim for this patient?
• Does the laterality on the claim match the laterality in the record?
• Has this payer asked for an external cause code, and does it carry the S character too?

The same sequencing error usually shows up across a whole panel of injury patients rather than on one claim. Treating it as a category, the way a structured approach to denial management does, turns a recurring write-off into a documentation fix you make once.

Why S87.01XS is POA exempt on inpatient claims

S87.01XS is POA exempt, so it needs no present-on-admission indicator on an inpatient claim. Sequela codes are exempt as a category under CMS policy. A sequela describes a condition arising from an earlier event, not one present at the time of admission.

For hospital billing teams, that means the code goes out with no indicator and triggers no POA-related edit. For outpatient and rehabilitation practices billing on the CMS-1500, POA never enters the picture at all.

How Pabau supports ICD-10 coding and claim submission

Practices handling traumatic injury follow-up, physical therapy, or orthopedic rehabilitation carry the same sequela pairing across a long run of visits. Practice management software like Pabau keeps those codes attached to the record, rather than in a separate billing tool that someone has to re-key.

Our claims software for practices carries a built-in ICD-10-CM code library. A coder can look up S87.01XS and attach it to the client record without leaving the chart. Codes already recorded against the client seed the claim form, and required fields have to be complete before the claim can be sent.

US claims go out through our Claim.MD clearinghouse integration, which reaches thousands of US payers and supports real-time eligibility checks. Claim.MD returns 835 electronic remittance advice files into Pabau. Your billing team reconciles payments and tracks outstanding claims in the same place the note was written.

Manage ICD-10 codes and claims in one place

Pabau pairs a built-in ICD-10-CM code library with Claim.MD claim submission and ERA reconciliation. Your billing team files claims and posts payments without leaving the patient record.

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Conclusion

S87.01XS is a straightforward code with one hard requirement. The record has to show that the right knee crush injury healed, and that today’s condition came from it. Once the note says both, the coding is mechanical: the residual condition leads, S87.01XS supports it, and the 7th character matches what the provider wrote.

The habit worth building is checking the documentation before you assign the code, not after the denial. One query on a vague note costs a few minutes. The recoupment it prevents lands 18 months later and costs considerably more.

Plenty of teams carry that pairing by hand across a dozen visits a week. Pabau keeps the code library, the claim, and the remittance on one record. Book a demo to see how it supports ICD-10 coding for orthopedic and rehabilitation practices.

Continue your research

Coding another knee sequela? S82.036S walks through a healed transverse patella fracture and the same two-code sequencing rule.

Soft tissue injury rather than a crush? S76.129S covers quadriceps laceration sequela and the documentation behind it.

Open wound of the knee on the chart? S81.009S explains when an unspecified-knee code is defensible and when it is not.

Building the visit documentation behind the claim? Superbill guide for medical practices shows how to structure a visit note so the codes come out right first time.

Want the wider revenue cycle picture? Revenue cycle management explained traces how diagnosis accuracy flows through to collections.

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