title: The determination of total burn surface area: How much difference?
abstract: Burn depth and burn size are crucial determinants for assessing patients suffering from burns. Therefore, a correct evaluation of these factors is optimal for adapting the appropriate treatment in modern burn care. Burn surface assessment is subject to considerable differences among clinicians. This work investigated the accuracy among experts based on conventional surface estimation methods (e.g. "Rule of Palm", "Rule of Nines" or "Lund-Browder Chart"). The estimation results were compared to a computer-based evaluation method. Survey data was collected during one national and one international burn conference. The poll confirmed deviations of burn depth/size estimates of up to 62% in relation to the mean value of all participants. In comparison to the computer-based method, overestimation of up to 161% was found. We suggest introducing improved methods for burn depth/size assessment in clinical routine in order to efficiently allocate and distribute the available resources for practicing burn care.
authors.affiliation: Research Unit Medical-Informatics, RISC Software GmbH, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Hagenberg, Austria. michael@giretzlehner.at
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giretzlehner
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dirnberger
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Haller
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Lumenta
authors.forename: L-P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Kamolz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001830:Body Surface Area; D002056:Burns / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008488:Medical Illustration; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices
keywords: Accuracy of estimations; Burn assessment; Burn size; Burn size determination; Computer support; Computer-aided methods; Correct evaluation of burns; Deviations of burn size estimations; Documentation of burns; Improved methods for burn size assessment; Objectivity of estimations; Overestimation