Lund-Browder Chart + Rule of Nines (%TBSA burn)
Estimate total body surface area burned from the Lund-Browder chart, which adjusts head and lower-limb percentages by age, and cross-check the result against the adult Rule of Nines.
Open the calculator → Runs in your browser. Data leaves only if you deliberately send a problem report from the interactive tool.
Example
- Age band
- adult
- head burn fraction
- 1
- ant-trunk burn fraction
- 1
Result: Lund-Browder %TBSA: 20% (adult Rule of Nines cross-check: 25%).
The tool opens with these values already filled in. Replace them with your own.
What the result means
- Age-adjusted
- head, thighs, and lower legs change as a share of body surface with age; the rest are fixed. Enter the fraction (0-1) of each region burned.
- Cross-check
- the adult Rule of Nines is computed independently alongside. The %TBSA feeds burn-fluid resuscitation; this tool produces the area.
What you enter
- Age band (infant / 1 / 5 / 10 / 15 / adult)
- head burn fraction (0-1)
- neck burn fraction (0-1)
- ant-trunk burn fraction (0-1)
- post-trunk burn fraction (0-1)
- buttocks burn fraction (0-1)
- genitalia burn fraction (0-1)
- upper-arms burn fraction (0-1)
The other 5 fields
- forearms burn fraction (0-1)
- hands burn fraction (0-1)
- thighs burn fraction (0-1)
- lower-legs burn fraction (0-1)
- feet burn fraction (0-1)
What this is
Pick the age band and enter the fraction of each anatomic region that is burned (0 = none, 1 = entirely; partial-thickness and deeper). Sophie Well returns the charted %TBSA beside the Rule-of-Nines figure, so adult head proportions are not silently applied 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.
How this is calculated
Lund CC, Browder NC. The estimation of areas of burns. Surg Gynecol Obstet. 1944;79:352-358. Search PubMed for this source ↗
A reference and educational tool. Not medical, legal, or financial advice, and not a substitute for clinician judgment.