The advantages of surface area of the body as a basis for calculating pediatric dosages

The use of surface area of the body as a basis for calculating fluid dosages has been questioned in recent communications. This letter is being written to call attention to certain facts which the authors of these communications appear to have overlooked. One is that body fluid requirements, like ma...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pediatrics (Evanston) 1959-09, Vol.24 (3), p.495-498
Main Authors: TALBOT, N B, RICHIE, R H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child
Humans
Old Medline
Pediatrics
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The use of surface area of the body as a basis for calculating fluid dosages has been questioned in recent communications. This letter is being written to call attention to certain facts which the authors of these communications appear to have overlooked. One is that body fluid requirements, like many other body functions, are not directly proportional to body weight. For this reason, Oliver et al. find it necessary to use five separate ml/lb-factors to calculate the fluid allowances of infants, children and adults. As can be seen in the table at the bottom of Figure 1, these diminish as individuals grow larger. Darrow likewise lists a series of eight factors to calculate body fluid requirements. Specifically he recommends that calories expended per kilogram be assumed to vary between 45 and 50 in the newborn, 60 and 80 in infants of 3 to 10 kg, 45 and 60 in children of 10 to 15 kg and so on down to a range of 25 to 30 in individuals weighing more than 60 kg.
ISSN:0031-4005
1098-4275
DOI:10.1542/peds.24.3.495