Estimated Cost of Emergency Sunburn Visits—Validation of ICD-9-CM Search Criteria

To the Editor We applaud the evaluation by Guy and colleagues¹ of costs for sunburn-associated visits to US emergency departments. Their analysis was performed using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) primary and secondary billing codes for sunburn (692.71, 692.76, and 692.77) in discharge records from the National Emergency Department Sample database.