E40: Kwashiorkor

You are lacking food or certain nutritional components.

Your body needs food in order to have enough energy, grow and stay healthy. Food is made up of various ingredients. For example, the body needs proteins to build up muscles and to be able to work properly. If you do not have enough food or individual nutritional components, you may lose weight and become emaciated. You may then weigh far less than is normal for your height. If you have too few proteins in your body, fluid may accumulate in your face or stomach. Due to the excess fluid, it is also possible that you have a normal weight.

You are lacking in proteins. If you consume too few proteins, the muscles reduce in size. You will then feel weak and your growth will also be limited. Proteins are also important for holding fluid in the blood vessels. It is also possible to have other symptoms.

Additional indicator

On medical documents, the ICD code is often appended by letters that indicate the diagnostic certainty or the affected side of the body.

  • G: Confirmed diagnosis
  • V: Tentative diagnosis
  • Z: Condition after
  • A: Excluded diagnosis
  • L: Left
  • R: Right
  • B: Both sides

Further information

Note

This information is not intended for self-diagnosis and does not replace professional medical advice from a doctor. If you find an ICD code on a personal medical document, please also note the additional indicator used for diagnostic confidence.
Your doctor will assist you with any health-related questions and explain the ICD diagnosis code to you in a direct consultation if necessary.

Source

Provided by the non-profit organization “Was hab’ ich?” gemeinnützige GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG).