Various body surface area formulas have been developed over the years originally by drs du bois du bois followed by gehan and george haycock boyd and mosteller. The growth of the surface area of the human body. The body surface area is used for numerous medical measures including medication calculation and the amount of fluids administered iv. The calculator below computes the total surface area of a human body referred to as body surface area bsa. You can estimate the body surface area on an adult that has been burned by using multiples of 9. 020247 x height m0725 x mass kg0425.
Body surface area calculator. The result is in squared meters which easily be converted to square feet inches or yards as needed. Gehan ea george sl. Geometric method for measuring body surface area. Where height is in meters and mass is in kg. The mosteller formula 1 bsa m2 sqrt height cm x weight kg 3600 eg.
Average body surface area for adult women. These formulas all give slightly different results. The calculator below provides results for some of the most popular formulas. Direct measurement of bsa is difficult and as such many formulas have been published that estimate bsa. Other influential factors include the age and gender of the individual. Estimating body surface area bsa to estimate your body surface area our bsa calculator uses the following formula 1.
Renal function for instance is measured by gfr relative to the body surface area. As an example if both legs 18 x 2 36 the groin 1 and the front chest and abdomen were burned this would involve 55 of the body. The normal body surface area is generally taken to be 17 m2 but in actual fact the body surface area depends on more than just height and weight. The surface area of a three dimensional object is the total area of all of its surfaces. Bsa is a measurement used in many medical tasks. Below are the body surface area formula by drs mosteller dubois and dubois haycock and boyd.
A height weight formula validated in infants children and adults. Surface area is important to know situations where we want to wrap something paint something and eventually while building things to get the best possible design. Surface area of rectangular prism. Cancer chemother rep 1970 54225 35. Bsa m2 sqrt height in x weight lbs 3131. For many clinical purposes bsa is a better indicator of metabolic mass than body weight because it is less affected by abnormal adipose mass.
An adult who has been burned the percent of the body involved can be calculated as follows. Bsa sqrt cmkg3600 or in inches and pounds. Average body surface area for adult men. Other medical measures are used for the bsa. How is it important. Estimation of human body surface area from height and weight.
The journal of pediatrics 1978 93162 66. In physiology and medicine the body surface area bsa is the measured or calculated surface area of a human body.