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Health & Medical

Body Surface Area (BSA) Calculator

Calculate BSA from height and weight using the Du Bois or Mosteller formula.

Formula
Body surface area
1.82
Du Bois (comparison)
1.81
What BSA is used for

Body surface area is used to dose chemotherapy and some other medications, to index cardiac output and other measurements (e.g., cardiac index), and in some kidney function calculations. Average adult BSA is roughly 1.7 m².

Not a dosing recommendation. Medication dosing by BSA should always be confirmed by a pharmacist or prescriber using the specific protocol for that drug.

Formula

How BSA is calculated

Mosteller
BSA = √(Height × Weight / 3600)
Du Bois
BSA = 0.007184 × W^0.425 × H^0.725

Height in cm, weight in kg, result in m² for both formulas.

FAQ

Common questions

BSA is used to calculate doses for chemotherapy and certain other medications, to index measurements like cardiac output (giving cardiac index), and as an input in some clinical equations. It’s considered a better proxy than weight alone for how a drug distributes through the body in many contexts.

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