Mo1015 Increase in Diverticular Disease Hospital Admissions 2000-2010

location was classified as a lower GI bleed. CONCLUSIONS: ICD-9 code 578.1 (“blood in stool”) represents hematochezia in ~60% of cases and melena in ~30%. ICD-9 codes 578.1 and 578.9 represent an unknown location of GI bleeding in only about one-third of cases; the remainder are either upper or lower GI bleeding that has been misclassified. Detailed validation can help inform (or reassign) the use of these codes in electronic database studies. The limited specificity of such codes will persist in the ICD-10 era. Table 1. Bleeding Manifestation*