Female (mother)—postpartum perineal status, code N

Identifying and definitional attributes
Metadata item type:	Data Element
Short name:	Perineal status
METEOR identifier:	269939
Registration status:	Health, Superseded 07/02/2013
Definition:	The state of the perineum following birth, as represented by a code.
Context:	Perinatal
Data Element Concept:	Female (mother)—postpartum perineal status

Value domain attributes

Representational attributes

Representation class:

Code

Data type:

Number

Format:

Maximum character length:

Permissible values:

Value	Meaning
1	Intact
2	1st degree laceration/vaginal graze
3	2nd degree laceration
4	3rd degree laceration
5	Episiotomy
6	Combined laceration and episiotomy
7	4th degree laceration
8	Other

Supplementary values:

Value	Meaning
9	Not stated

Collection and usage attributes

Guide for use:

Vaginal tear is included in the same group as 1st degree laceration to be consistent with ICD-10-AM code. Other degrees of laceration are as defined in ICD-10-AM.

Comments:

While 4th degree laceration is more severe than an episiotomy it has not been placed in order of clinical significance within the data domain. Instead it has been added to the data domain as a new code rather than modifying the existing order of data domain code values. This is because information gatherers are accustomed to the existing order of the codes. Modifying the existing order may result in miscoding of data. This approach is consistent with established practice in classifications wherein a new data domain identifier (or code number) is assigned to any new value meaning that occurs, rather than assigning this new value domain meaning to an existing data domain identifier.

Data element attributes

Collection and usage attributes

Comments:

Perineal laceration (tear) may cause significant maternal morbidity in the postnatal period. Episiotomy is an indicator of management during labour and, to some extent, of intervention rates.