K70.41

Billable

Alcoholic hepatic failure with coma

HCC Category Mapping

V28HCC 63 — End-Stage Liver Disease

0.307

What This Code Means

Severe liver failure caused by chronic alcohol use where the liver can no longer function and the patient has lost consciousness due to hepatic encephalopathy.

Coding Tips

•Hepatic coma/encephalopathy must be explicitly documented to assign this code; this represents a medical emergency
•This is a more severe presentation than K70.40 and indicates significantly worse prognosis

Clinical Significance

Alcoholic hepatic failure with coma represents the most severe form of alcohol-related liver disease with hepatic encephalopathy, indicating imminent life-threatening complications. This condition requires immediate intensive care management and emergency transplant evaluation due to extremely high mortality risk.

Documentation Requirements

✓Documentation of alcoholic hepatic failure
✓Presence of coma or altered consciousness
✓Evidence of hepatic encephalopathy
✓Alcohol as causative agent
✓Neurological assessment and Glasgow Coma Scale
✓Laboratory markers of liver failure
✓Intensive care management requirements
✓Emergency transplant evaluation status

Commonly Confused Codes

K70.40 — Alcoholic hepatic failure without coma lacks encephalopathy K72.01 — Acute hepatic failure with coma has different etiology G93.1 — Anoxic brain damage has different cause F10.27 — Alcohol-induced dementia is chronic condition R40.20 — Unspecified coma without liver failure

Code Hierarchy

└K70Alcoholic liver disease └K70.4Alcoholic hepatic failure └K70.41Alcoholic hepatic failure with coma

└K70.41Alcoholic hepatic failure with coma