Q21.88: Other congenital malformations of cardiac septa
A change has occurred in your cardiac septum, that is, the wall dividing the left and right sides of your heart. This condition is congenital, which means you were born with it.
The heart pumps blood through the body. Inside the heart are 4 chambers. There are 2 heart atria and 2 ventricles. Both heart atria and both ventricles are separated from each other by a partition.
A change in the cardiac septum can occur while the heart is developing in the womb before birth. This may affect the septum between the two upper chambers (atria) or between the two lower chambers (ventricles). Sometimes, for example, the cardiac septum fails to close up as normal during development. A change in the cardiac septum alters normal blood flow in the heart. This sometimes puts the heart under greater strain. The blood supply to the body may also be impacted due to the altered cardiac septum.
This can cause a range of very different symptoms. You may occasionally experience shortness of breath or tire quickly. Your skin, nails and fingers may also look different. Having only a small change in the cardiac septum may mean you don’t have any symptoms at all.
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).