Burn Surface Area Calculator
Burn Surface Area Calculator - a deterministic tool in Sophie Well's EMS & Field Medicine group.
Open the Burn Surface Area Calculator → Runs in your browser. No signup, no tracking.
What this is
Estimate total body surface area burned using the Rule of Nines (adult and pediatric variants) or the Lund-Browder chart, which adjusts head and lower-limb percentages by age. Sophie Well lets the user tag each anatomic region as partial- or full-thickness, sums the affected percentage, and shows the adult-vs-pediatric difference so a clinician does not silently apply adult head proportions to an infant.
When to use it
Use this when triaging a burn patient to determine transfer to a burn center (ABA criteria reference a TBSA percentage), when initiating fluid resuscitation calculations (the Parkland and modified-Brooke formulas both start with TBSA - pair this with the burn-fluid tool), or when teaching the age-dependent body proportions that make Lund-Browder more accurate than the Rule of Nines for children under five. Superficial (first-degree, erythema only) burns are conventionally excluded from the TBSA used in fluid math.
References
Lund CC, Browder NC. The estimation of areas of burns. Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1944;79:352-358. Rule of Nines: standard adult body-region distribution.
Worked example: TBSA 18% (anterior trunk only).
Sophie Well is a reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice. Does not replace clinician judgment, professional billing review, or legal counsel.