Question

There are 2 different formulas to calculate body surface area-the top one uses cm for height and kg for weight and the bottom one uses inches and pounds. These must be completed using a calculator-you cannot do them on a sheet of paper. Complete the calculation inside the square root symbol and then hit the square root key and that is the answer labeled as m²

Please calculate the body surface area using the following formula.

Body surface area is recorded as m²

If height and weight is in centimeters (cm) and kilograms(kg):

m² =

1. Calculate the body surface area for a child whose weight is 10 kg and length is 70 cm

 The child has a medication ordered and the recommended dose is 3 mg per m2

^{2. What is the recommended dose for this child?}

If height and weight is measured in inches (in) and pounds:

m²=

3. Calculate the body surface area for an adult whose weight is 170 lb and height is 67 inches.

4. The adult is to receive a medication with a recommended dose of 100 mg per m²
What would be the recommended dose for this adult?

Answer 1

Body surface are is calculated as square root of (height×weight) /3600, height in cm and weight in kg and BSA is m².

1) Doing the calculation as above, the result comes root 7 as numerator and 6 as denominator. Simplying it, the result comes 0.44 metre square. Medication needed (3×0.44) mg or 1.32mg.

2) If the height is inches and weight is in pounds, then the formula will be same but denominator will be 3131.10kg means 22lbs approx, 70cm means 27.6inches.So, result comes 0.44metre square. So, the recommended dose will be same 1.32mg.

3) BSA of the adult using same formula as above and the result comes 1.91m².

4) 100mg to be taken per metre square. So, for 1.91metre square BSA, (100×1.91) mg or 191mg medicine has to be taken.