A trained medical coder, using current medical coding guidelines and conventions, should assign the correct procedure code (CPT and ICD-10-PCS) to the hysterectomy procedure. For the purpose of SSI reporting, the NHSN HYST – abdominal hysterectomy operative procedure category includes hysterectomy procedures/codes that involve an incision into the abdomen, including trocar insertion. The hysterectomy procedure approach (5th character of the ICD-10 operative procedure code assigned by a medical coder) identifies whether an abdominal incision was made and determines if the procedure is categorized as a NHSN HYST or VHYS. The definition of each NHSN operative procedure category is listed in the NHSN “ICD-10-PCS Procedure Code Mapping to NHSN Operative Procedure Codes” document.  This document can be found on the NHSN Surveillance for Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Events web page under “Operative Procedure Code Documents”.