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Table 2 Operational definitions of some terms derived from International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) and College of American Pathologists (CAP) [15, 16]

From: Errors in cause-of-death statement on death certificates in intensive care unit of Kathmandu, Nepal

Causes of death: “all those disease, morbid conditions or injuries which either resulted in or contributed to death and the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced any such injuries”. (Twentieth World Health Assembly, 1967)

 

Immediate cause of death: The final disease or injury causing the death.

 

Underlying cause of death: “(a) the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or (b) the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury”. (World Health Organization, 1994)

 

Part II is for any other significant condition that contributed to the fatal outcome, but was not related to the disease or condition directly causing death.

 

“due to (or consequences of)”: after these word on the certificate, should be included not only the direct cause or pathological process, but also indirect causes, for example where an antecedent condition has predisposed to the direct cause by damage to tissues or impairment of function, even after a long interval.

 

Sequence: refers to two or more conditions entered on successive lines of Part I, each condition being an acceptable cause of the one entered on the line above it. If there is more than one cause of death in a line of the certificate, it is possible to have more than one reported sequence.

 

Ill-Defined conditions: I46.9 (Cardiac arrest, unspecified); I95.9 (Hypotension; unspecified); I99 (Other and unspecified disorders of circulatory system); J96.O (Acute respiratory failure); J96.9 (Respiratory failure, unspecified); R00-R94 and R96- R99 (Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified).