Comparison between the Lund-Browder chart and the BurnCase 3D® for consistency in estimating total body surface area burned

Abstract

Measure time required to determine total body surface area (TBSA) burned (%TBSA) using the Lund-Browder chart and BurnCase 3D®, and calculate discrepancy between the two methods' %TBSA estimates. We asked 3 burn experts with 7 to 9 years of experience to participate in our experiment by estimating TBSA burned (%TBSA) for 26 subjects with a total of 262 photos, based on the Lund-Browder chart and the BurnCase 3D. We also measured time required for each estimation. Estimations via the Lund-Browder chart and the BurnCase 3D showed statistically significant differences for Observers 1 and 2 (p < 0.05), but not for Observer 3 (p = 0.11). Inter-observer variability was insignificant among the observers (p = 0.31). When using the BurnCase 3D, burn estimation was consistent across the 3 participants (p = 0.31), yet the time spent for each method was significantly different (p < 0.05) from using the Lund-Browder chart and the time spent for estimation did not statistically vary (p = 0.20). Time spent on burn estimation varied when using either the Lund-Browder chart or the BurnCase 3D for all participants (p < 0.05). Using the BurnCase 3D over the Lund-Browder chart produced slightly different estimations for TBSA burned but estimation results stayed stable across inspectors. Due to the small sample size however, further investigation is necessary.

Keywords

• burn
• total body surface area
• burncase 3d
• lund and browder chart
• burn size