medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

, fragmentation is an operation that breaks of solid matter in a body part into pieces. Physical force (e.g., manual force, ultrasonic force), applied directly or indirectly through intervening body parts, are used to break down the solid matter into pieces. The solid matter may be an abnormal by-product of a biological function, or a

foreign body A foreign body (FB) is any object originating outside the body of an organism. In machinery, it can mean any unwanted intruding object. Most references to foreign bodies involve propulsion through natural orifices into hollow organs. Foreign b ...

. The pieces of solid matter are not taken out, but are eliminated or absorbed through normal biological functions. Examples would be the fragmentation of

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

and

urinary bladder The bladder () is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the Kidney (vertebrates), kidneys. In placental mammals, urine enters the bladder via the ureters and exits via the urethra during urination. In humans, the ...

stones (

nephrolithiasis Kidney stone disease (known as nephrolithiasis, renal calculus disease, or urolithiasis) is a crystallopathy and occurs when there are too many minerals in the urine and not enough liquid or hydration. This imbalance causes tiny pieces of cr ...

and

urolithiasis Kidney stone disease (known as nephrolithiasis, renal calculus disease, or urolithiasis) is a crystallopathy and occurs when there are too many minerals in the urine and not enough liquid or hydration. This imbalance causes tiny pieces of cr ...

, respectively) by shock-wave lithotripsy,

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...

lithotripsy Lithotripsy is a procedure involving the physical destruction of hardened masses like kidney stones, bezoars or gallstones, which may be done non-invasively. The term is derived from the Greek words meaning "breaking (or pulverizing) stones" ( lit ...

, or transurethral lithotripsy. The code for fragmentation in

ICD-10-PCS The ICD-10 Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) is a US system of medical classification used for procedural coding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency responsible for maintaining the inpatient procedure code set in the U. ...

is 0FF.

References

Gastroenterology {{treatment-stub