Rule of Nines question........

[bewbew]

Rule of Nines question........

I am confused!!

I would appreciate any help as I cannot work it out!!

I am doing a burns case study, and we have to work out the surface area of the burns the patient suffered. I know that the 'Rule of Nines' would be used, or the Lund and Browder chart, but I am still confused!?!

What I don't understand is in the rule of nines, if a person is burnt on both arms, would they get a '9%', or an '18 %' score? Or if they were only burnt on 1 arm, would they get a 4.5% score. I am soooo confused, I have looked in my texts, on the 'net, but nothing specifically states this. Thank you!

bew :)

[AlaskanRN]

bewbew...

in the rule of nines the head and neck accounts for 9%

each arm is 9%

the front of each leg is 9%

the back of each leg is 9% for a total of 18% on each leg

depending on how you were taught... the front of the chest/abd is 9% and the back is 9%

OR the upper half of chest/back is 9% and lower half of abd/back is 9%

the groin accounts for 1%

this should total up to 100% of body surface

this is also calculated for adults...it is different for peds due to the relative size of their heads...

i was also taught the 1% method...

the surface area of the pts palm makes up 1% of their body surface...hence...you can estimate the burned surface using that method if the burn does not cover a large area...or is in spots over the pts body...

i believe this method can also be used with peds

hope this helps

[nurslingIUS]

Rule of Nine's for estimating Burn Area - average 9% Body Surface Area for each of:

entire upper limb

anterior or posterior surface of one lower limb

1/2 of the anterior or posterior surface of the trunk

total head and neck (adult)

Hope this helps. Cathy