Clostridium difficile infection (C. diff)
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| ICD10 Diagnosis | |
| Dx: | Clostridium difficile infection (C. diff) |
| ICD10 code: | A04.7 |
| Pre-ICD10 counterpart: | Pseudomembranous Colitis (C-DIFF) |
| Charlson/ALERT Scale: | none |
| APACHE Como Component: | none |
| APACHE Acute Component: | 2019-0: GI NOS |
| Start Date: | |
| Stop Date: | |
| External ICD10 Documentation | |
This diagnosis is a part of ICD10 collection.
Additional Info
Includes
- Pseudomembraneous colitis
Code this if you have a patient who is diagnosed with pseudomembranous colitis and the stool culture is positive (+ve) for C.diff.
what if it is is a different pathogen?
- Dr. Kumar states that the majority of pseudomembranous colitis is caused by C.diff and other types are rare.
- If a patient has diarrhea and a stool culture is negative (-ve) for C.diff, then code the appropriate other Category:Gastroenteritis code.
Double Duty Pathogen code
This ICD10 code does double duty as both a pathogen and a disease condition:
- as the Infection with implied pathogen C. diff diarrhea
- as the pathogen C. diff when it affects another part of the body, e.g. in sepsis
Alternate ICD10s to consider coding instead or in addition
Candidate Combined ICD10 codes
Infections
Infections in ICD10 have combined coding requirements for some of their pathogens. Any that have antibiotic resistances would store those as Combined ICD10 codes as well. If the infection is acquired in the hospital, see Nosocomial infection, NOS. See Lab and culture reports for confirmation and details about tests. See Infections in ICD10 for more general info.
Possible Simultaneous Presence of Multiple Different Types of Infection in a Single Site
- This refers to the situation where there may be simultaneous infection with multiple types of organisms -- e.g. 2 of bacteria, virus, fungus. While a classic example is a proven viral pneumonia (e.g. influenza) with a suspected/possible bacterial pneumonia superimposed, this kind of thing can occur in places other than the lungs, e.g. meningitis.
- The "signature" of this is typically the patient being treated simultaneously with antimicrobial agents for multiple types of organisms. BUT don't confuse this with there being infections at DIFFERENT body sites.
- As per our usual practice, we will consider a diagnosis as present if the clinical team thinks it's present and are treating it, with the exception that the team initially treated for the possible 2nd type of infection but then decided it likely was NOT present and stopped those agents.
- And remember that Infectious organism, unknown is used when the the specific organism is unknown (this could be not knowing the TYPE of organism, or suspecting the type but not having identified the specific organism of that type), while when the organism has been identified but it's not in our bug list, THEN use Bacteria, NOS, Virus, NOS or Fungus or yeast, NOS.
Attribution of infections
Related CCI Codes
- possibly Isolation, infectious
Data Integrity Checks (automatic list)
| App | Status | |
|---|---|---|
| Query check ICD10 Inf Potential Infection must have pathogen or alt | CCMDB.accdb | declined |
| Check Inf Antibiotic resistance must have pathogen or Infection with implied pathogen | CCMDB.accdb | implemented |
| Check Inf Infection with implied pathogen must not have a pathogen combined code | CCMDB.accdb | implemented |
| Query check ICD10 Inf Infection req Pathogen must have one | CCMDB.accdb | implemented |
| Query Check Inf Pathogens must have Infection requiring pathogen or Potential Infection | CCMDB.accdb | implemented |
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