International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems: 10th Revision

by World Health Organization

The ICD is the international standard diagnostic classification for all general epidemiological purposes, many health management purposes and clinical use. These include analysis of the general health situation of population groups and monitoring the incidence and prevalence of diseases, as well as other health problems with respect to variables such as the characteristics and circumstances of the individuals affected, reimbursement, casemix, resource allocation, quality, patient safety, and guidelines.

ICD is used for health information purposes in public health, primary, secondary and tertiary care settings. In particular, it is used to classify diseases, accidents, reasons for encounter, and other health problems recorded on many types of health and vital records including death certificates and health records. In addition to facilitating the storage and retrieval of diagnostic information for clinical, epidemiological and quality purposes, the resulting records form the basis for compiling national mortality and morbidity statistics by WHO Member States. ICD serves a language-independent framework for classification of diseases and has been translated into more than 40 languages.

ICD-10, Fifth edition, 2016 revision includes more than 100 edits, updates and clarifications since 2010.

Highlights in Volume 1 include introduction of the new WHO dengue classification, distinction between seasonal and zoonotic or pandemic influenza, update to the terminology of haematological tumours in line with the recent developments in the field, added detail for atrial fibrillation and flutter. The coding scheme of haemorrhoids has been updated and moved to the digestive system chapter. Further changes include a new code to document female genital mutilation, a range of emergency codes, and additional details for coding of antibiotic resistance. The reference to the outdated morphology codes has been totally eliminated, and users are now encouraged to use the histopathology list of ICD-O directly.

In Volume 2, instructions on mortality coding have been fully rewritten, for more clarity - but without changing the rules. The appendices include the new death certificate, a form for the recommended additional information for perinatal deaths, and a flyer on how to fill in the medical certificate of cause of death. Users are encouraged to use only one certificate of causes of death for all cases, including perinatal deaths.

Volume 3 has been updated to match changes in Volume 1.

2131 pages, Hardcover

Published December 7, 2015

About the author

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations.

The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office international d'hygiène publique and the League of Nations Health Organization. Since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.

The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, a leading international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day (7 April of every year)