Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00528:reg:6
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2018L00528
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 6
Character Range: 1483–3923

6               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about mesenteric panniculitis and death from mesenteric panniculitis.
     Meaning of mesenteric panniculitis
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, mesenteric panniculitis:
            (a)          means an inflammatory condition of the fatty layer (panniculus) that underlies the mesentery, omentum and peritoneum in the abdominal cavity, and which is clinically symptomatic or requires treatment; and
            (b)          excludes sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, retroperitoneal fibrosis (Ormond disease), peritoneal adhesions, acute peritonitis, infectious peritonitis, and the radiological phenomenon of "misty mesentery" not diagnosed specifically as mesenteric panniculitis.
            Note 1: Clinical symptoms commonly include acute or chronic abdominal pain, an abdominal mass or abdominal swelling, fever, weight loss, diarrhoea or vomiting.  The symptoms are often due to obstruction of the bowel or mesenteric vessels.
            Note 2: The inflammation is histologically characterised by chronic inflammatory infiltration by lymphocytes and macrophages, fat necrosis and fibrosis.  Mesenteric panniculitis is diagnosed by histology or by abdominal imaging using established radiological criteria.
            Note 3: Mesenteric panniculitis may also be known as mesenteric lipodystrophy or sclerosing mesenteritis.
(3)          While mesenteric panniculitis attracts ICD‑10‑AM code K65.8, in applying this Statement of Principles the meaning of mesenteric panniculitis is that given in subsection (2).
(4)          For subsection (3), a reference to an ICD-10-AM code is a reference to the code assigned to a particular kind of injury or disease in The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM), Tenth Edition, effective date of 1 July 2017, copyrighted by the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority, ISBN 978-1-76007-296-4.
     Death from mesenteric panniculitis
(5)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, mesenteric panniculitis, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's mesenteric panniculitis.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 – Dictionary.