HL7 Table HL70163: Body Site

Table 0163 is HL7 v2's compact anatomic-site vocabulary. It encodes the part of the body a specimen was drawn from, an immunization was given in, or a catheter was placed at — using terse two-to-five-letter codes that encode laterality (L/R/B for left, right, bilateral) followed by an anatomic abbreviation. LD is left deltoid, RVL is right vastus lateralis, LIJ is left internal jugular, LLAQ is left lower abdomen quadrant. The codes are unmistakable to a clinician and dense enough to fit in a single field.

The table predates SNOMED CT's anatomic hierarchy and was designed when v2 messages needed self-contained anatomy without a terminology server. Modern profiles — FHIR, US Core, and v2 implementation guides aligned with them — defer to SNOMED CT for the authoritative anatomic vocabulary. Table 0163 remains active in v2.8.1 and is widely used in immunization registries (RXR-2 historically), lab specimen messages (SPM-8), and order messages (OBR-15.4); engines should accept it, map it forward to SNOMED CT for FHIR consumers, and not invent new codes.

Purpose

Table 0163 provides HL7 v2's compact anatomic-site vocabulary — terse, laterality-bearing codes for the part of the body a specimen was drawn from, an injection was given in, or a catheter was placed at. It lets a single field carry site and laterality together (LD left deltoid, RIJ right internal jugular) without a terminology server.

Because the table is HL7-defined, conformant receivers are expected to recognise its codes without local negotiation; modern profiles defer to SNOMED CT for sites 0163 does not cover rather than extending the table.

Where it's used

Immunization profiles (CDC IIS, HL7 Immunization IG) historically used RXR-2 with 0163; newer profiles use the IIS-aligned CVX/MVX vocabularies for the vaccine itself and SNOMED CT for the site.

Code list

The list below reflects the v2.8.1 publication of table 0163 as hosted on terminology.hl7.org. Codes are case-sensitive. Laterality is encoded by the leading letter: L (left), R (right), B (bilateral), P (perineal/perianal — no laterality).

The full v2.8.1 list extends beyond this excerpt; receivers are expected to defer to SNOMED CT for any anatomic site not represented here.

Code groupings

The 0163 alphabet is laterality-prefixed and clusters into anatomic regions:

• Bilateral / midline — BE, BN, BU, CT, NB, PA, PERIN. Sites with no left/right distinction.
• Arm and forearm — LA/RA, LUA/RUA, LUFA/RUFA, LMFA/RMFA, LLFA/RLFA, LEJ/REJ. Common venipuncture and IV-access targets.
• Hand and foot — LH/RH, LF/RF.
• Deltoid and gluteal — LD/RD, LG/RG, LVG/RVG. The classic IM injection sites.
• Thigh — LT/RT, LVL/RVL. The vastus lateralis is the recommended pediatric IM site.
• Chest — LAC/RAC, LPC/RPC. Used for central-line and chest-tube placement.
• Central venous — LIJ/RIJ, LSC/RSC. Internal jugular and subclavian access.
• Head and ENT — LE/RE, LNS/RNS. Ear drops, nasal swabs.
• Abdomen — LUAQ/RUAQ, LLAQ/RLAQ. The four quadrants for subcutaneous injections and physical exam.

Code system OID

• OID: 2.16.840.1.113883.18.62
• Canonical URI: http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/v2-0163

Table 0163 was first introduced in HL7 v2.3 and remains active; HL7 signals SNOMED CT as the strategic anatomic vocabulary, but 0163 remains the on-wire shorthand for laterality-bearing sites in v2 messages. Vorro emits this OID in CWE.14 when a downstream profile demands OID-bound coded values.

HL7-defined vs user-defined

Table 0163 is HL7-defined. Its number falls inside the HL7-reserved range (HL70001–HL70999) and the code set is normative — receivers are expected to accept the published codes without local extension, and senders must not invent additional codes inside this table. Sites needing an anatomic location not covered by 0163 should carry it as a SNOMED CT concept on a CWE field rather than extending 0163 locally.

Examples

• Specimen swab — SPM|1|...|...|...|...|...|^^^LNS^Left Naris^HL70163 — nasopharyngeal swab from the left naris.
• Venipuncture — OBR|1|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|...|^^^LAC^Left Antecubital^HL70163.
• IM injection — RXR|IM^Intramuscular^HL70162|LD^Left Deltoid^HL70163 — flu shot in the left deltoid.
• Pediatric IM — RXR|IM^Intramuscular^HL70162|LVL^Left Vastus Lateralis^HL70163.
• Central line — OBX|1|ST|...^Catheter Site^L||RIJ^Right Internal Jugular^HL70163.

Version differences

• v2.3 — Original list, focused on injection and venipuncture sites: arm, deltoid, gluteal, thigh codes.
• v2.4 — Added central-venous codes (LIJ, RIJ, LSC, RSC) and chest-tube CT for procedural messaging.
• v2.5 — Added abdomen quadrants (LUAQ, RUAQ, LLAQ, RLAQ) and antecubital/forearm subdivisions. SPM segment introduced; SPM-8 became the canonical specimen body-site field.
• v2.6 — Added bilateral codes (BE, BN) and NB (nebulized) for respiratory therapy messaging.
• v2.7–v2.8.1 — No new codes; descriptions refined, OID/system URI formally registered. HL7 signals SNOMED CT as the long-term anatomic vocabulary.

Common mistakes

• Ignoring laterality — LA and RA are distinct codes. Engines that lower-case or strip the prefix conflate left and right arms, with obvious downstream consequences for immunization and venipuncture records.
• Inventing local codes — needing a site that is not in 0163 (e.g., scalp, eye) and inventing a Z-code without a coding system. Use SNOMED CT and carry it as the second triplet in a CWE field.
• Using 0163 for routes — NB (nebulized) is in 0163 historically but is conceptually a route, not a site. Modern profiles send route information in RXR-1 with HL70162 instead.
• Truncating to two letters — engines that assume all 0163 codes are two characters truncate LVL, RUFA, PERIN. Codes are variable-length up to five characters.
• Mismatched laterality between segments — sending LD in RXR-2 but documenting the right deltoid in clinical notes. Engines cannot catch this, but it is the most common immunization-registry data-quality issue.

FHIR mapping

OBR-15.4, SPM-8, and RXR-2 all map into FHIR fields bound to the body-site value set, which is SNOMED CT-based.

The mapping is one-way and lossy in places: 0163's quadrant codes (LUAQ) map to general SNOMED quadrant concepts; some 0163 codes (NB nebulized) are routes rather than sites in FHIR and do not have a direct body-site target.

Engine considerations

• Variable length — codes are 2–5 characters. Parsers must not assume fixed width.
• Laterality extraction — useful to expose laterality as a separate normalized field (left / right / bilateral / none) so downstream rules can filter without re-parsing.
• SNOMED projection — for FHIR consumers, project 0163 to SNOMED CT at the edge using the v2-to-FHIR ConceptMap rather than emitting v2 codes into FHIR resources.
• Case sensitivity — codes are case-sensitive upper-case. Lower-case la is not LA; reject or correct with a warning.
• Field placement migration — older messages put body site in OBR-15.4; v2.5+ moves it to SPM-8. Engines reading both should consolidate to a single normalized field on the parsed event.

How Vorro handles HL70163

Vorro parses 0163 codes wherever they appear — OBR-15.4, SPM-8, RXR-2 — into a normalized body_site field with laterality split into its own attribute. On outbound, the engine emits 0163 verbatim for v2 consumers and projects to SNOMED CT via the v2-to-FHIR ConceptMap for FHIR consumers. Unknown sites passed through as Z-codes are preserved with their coding system rather than coerced into 0163.

Related pages

• OBR segment
• SPM segment — Specimen
• RXR segment — Pharmacy/Treatment Route
• CWE data type — Coded With Exceptions

Sources

• terminology.hl7.org — CodeSystem v2-0163
• FHIR R4 ValueSet — body-site