BMJ  2004;329:101-103 (10 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7457.101

Clinical review

ABC of burns

Initial management of a major burn: II—assessment and resuscitation

Shehan Hettiaratchy,

Remo Papini

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Assessment of burn area

Assessment of burn area tends to be done badly, even by those who are expert at it. There are three commonly used methods of estimating burn area, and each has a role in different scenarios. When calculating burn area, erythema should not be included. This may take a few hours to fade, so some overestimation is inevitable if the burn is estimated acutely.


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  		Wallace rule of nines

 

Palmar surface—The surface area of a patient's palm (including fingers) is roughly 0.8% of total body surface area. Palmar surface are can be used to estimate relatively small burns (< 15% of total surface area) or very large burns (> 85%, when unburnt skin is counted). For medium sized burns, it is inaccurate.

Wallace rule of nines—This is a good, quick way of estimating medium to large burns in adults. The body is divided into areas of 9%, and the total . . . [Full text of this article]

Resuscitation regimens

Escharotomies

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Assessment of burn depth

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