Body Surface Area Calculator

Body surface area is used in medicine to dose certain drugs and index physiological measures. This calculator uses the widely adopted Mosteller formula from your height and weight.

Worked Example

Sample input: Height (cm): 175, Weight (kg): 70

Body surface area: 1.84 (Typical adult range (m²))

Your body surface area is about 1.84 m² by the Mosteller formula. Average adult BSA is roughly 1.7 m². BSA is used clinically for medication dosing and physiological indexing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is body surface area used for?

BSA is used clinically to calculate doses of some medications, such as chemotherapy, and to index measures like cardiac output and kidney function more fairly across body sizes.

Which formula does this use?

It uses the Mosteller formula (New England Journal of Medicine, 1987): BSA in square metres equals the square root of height in centimetres times weight in kilograms divided by 3600. It is simple and accurate.

What is an average BSA?

Average adult body surface area is roughly 1.7 square metres, with men averaging about 1.9 and women about 1.6 square metres. Children have smaller values that scale with growth.

Should I use BSA for medication doses myself?

No. While the calculation is standard, medication dosing must be done by a qualified clinician who accounts for the full clinical context. Use this tool for general understanding only.

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