🩺 Body Surface Area Calculator (BSA)
Used in medicine for drug dosage calculations
📌 Notes
Average BSA for an adult male ≈ 1.9 m²; for an adult female ≈ 1.6 m². BSA is used to dose chemotherapy drugs and assess heart and kidney function.
What Is Body Surface Area (BSA)?
Body surface area is the total measured area of the outer body, expressed in square metres. Clinicians use it instead of weight alone because it tracks more closely with how the body processes many medicines. This calculator estimates BSA from your height and weight using several recognised formulas, including Mosteller, DuBois and DuBois, Haycock, and Gehan and George.
The Mosteller formula is the most widely used because it is simple and easy to verify: it takes the square root of height in centimetres multiplied by weight in kilograms, divided by 3600. Different formulas can give slightly different values, so the tool lets you compare them side by side.
Why BSA Matters in Medicine
BSA is central to dosing chemotherapy and certain other drugs, where doses are often prescribed per square metre to balance effectiveness against toxicity. It is also used in estimating cardiac index, fluid needs, and burn assessment.
This calculator is intended for educational and reference use. It does not replace clinical judgement, and any real treatment dose must be set and checked by a qualified physician or pharmacist using the patient measurements and the protocol for that specific drug.