New 5-D Coding System for Categorization of Plastic Surgery Conditions

BACKGROUND: There is need for a coding system for categorizing the plastic surgery conditions to facilitate efficient data exchange, retrieval, research, time-series analysis, clinical audit, insurance and legal purposes. This is a pilot study to assess feasibility of newly proposed 5-D coding system in categorizing the plastic surgery conditions. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of records of plastic surgery patients visited in last 15 months was done. Each patient was assigned a code according to the newly proposed 5-D system of coding and recorded in excel sheet. Data analysis was done to categorize various plastic surgery conditions. Results of analysis were shown to 11 plastic surgeons and their feedback was taken. RESULTS: Feedback taken from participants showed 5-D coding system was useful and practically easy to categorize the plastic surgery conditions. CONCLUSION: Proposed new 5-D coding system is easy and useful in categorization of plastic surgery conditions.