Question

An adult patient has come into the burn unit during your shift. You take an inventory of the location of their burns in the chart below.

Part of Body Burned?
(1 = yes, 0 = no)
Head 1
Left Arm 1
Right Arm 1
Upper Front Torso 0
Upper Back Torso 0
Lower Front Torso 1
Lower Back Torso 1
Upper Left Leg 0
Upper Right Leg 0
Lower Left Leg 0
Lower Right Leg 1


Given that their weight/mass is 50.9 kg, determine how much fluid they should receive per hour in the first 8 hours of their care. Answer to the nearest hundredth of a liter (two decimal places). ( Please help me by showing work, thank you!)

Answer 1

To determine the fluid replacement rate for a burn patient in the first 8 hours, we can use the Parkland formula:

Fluid (in liters) = 4 mL × body weight in kg × % total body surface area (TBSA) burned

First, we need to calculate the TBSA burned. We can use the Rule of Nines to estimate this:

Head: 9%

Left Arm: 9%

Right Arm: 9%

Upper Front Torso: 0%

Upper Back Torso: 0%

Lower Front Torso: 18%

Lower Back Torso: 18%

Upper Left Leg: 0%

Upper Right Leg: 0%

Lower Left Leg: 0%

Lower Right Leg: 9%

Total TBSA burned = 9 + 9 + 9 + 18 + 18 + 9 = 72%

Now we can plug in the values into the Parkland formula:

Fluid (in liters) = 4 mL × 50.9 kg × 72% = 14,694.72 mL

To convert mL to liters, we divide by 1000:

Fluid (in liters) = 14,694.72 mL ÷ 1000 = 14.69 L

This is the total amount of fluid the patient needs in the first 8 hours. To determine the hourly rate, we divide by 8:

Hourly fluid rate = 14.69 L ÷ 8 = 1.84 L/hour

Therefore, the patient should receive approximately 1.84 liters of fluid per hour in the first 8 hours of their care.