CHAPTER A - nomesco

STRUCTURE AN D CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES
Structure and
classification guidelines
Introduction
The Classification of Surgical Procedures (NCSP) is based on the traditions of the surgical profession in the Nordic
countries and reflects surgical practice in these countries in 1994. It constitutes the first common Nordic classification of
surgical procedures.
In producing this classification attention has been paid to generally accepted requirements for surgical procedure
components as seen in concurrent classification development. In addition the classification is designed to give reasonable
scope for expansion to meet anticipated future advances in the field of surgical procedures. With these updates the NCSP is
expected to do good service as a regional classification for some years.
Classification structure
Overview
The NCSP consists of 15 main chapters (A-H, J-N, P-Q) of surgical procedures arranged according to functional-anatomic
body system, four subsidiary chapters (T, U, X, Y) containing therapeutic and investigative procedures associated with
surgery and one supplementary chapter (Z).
The subsidiary chapters are: Minor surgical procedures (T), Transluminal endoscopy – through natural or artificial body
orifices (U), Investigative procedures connected with surgery (X), Procurement of organs and tissue for transplantation (Y).
The procedure codes of the main and subsidiary chapters A-Y are basic procedure codes, each assigned as a unique identifier
to a uniquely defined procedure. The basic procedure codes include and represent all accepted surgical procedures and
constitute the only complete and independent procedure codes. The supplementary codes of chapter Z serve as general
procedure qualifiers, providing additional information to the basic procedure codes. They are always appended to basic
procedure codes, and may never be used alone.
Procedure codes described
The NCSP codes consist of three alphabetic characters (positions 1-3 of the code) and two numeric characters (positions 4-5
of the code). All upper-case characters of the English alphabet are permitted as alphabetic characters, except I and O.
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