The rule of nines is helpful clinically in a. diagnosing skin cancer, b. estimating the extent of a burn, c. estimating how serious a cancer is, d. preventing acne.

Video transcript

Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Let's look at our next question. A firefighter catches fire and is presented in the A&E department with superficial skin burns on the anterior aspect of the chest and abdomen, perineum and both upper limbs, calculate the percentage of the burnt area. Using the rule of nine. The answer choices are a 18% b 37% C 36% or D 45%. So the rule of nine allows us to estimate the percent T BS A or total burned surface area, which is what we're looking for based on which parts of the body are burned. So the first part of this is anterior aspect of the chest and abdomen. Well, that would count as the anterior trunk in terms of the divisions of body area. That rule gives us which would be 18% as an estimate of body surface area. Then it lists the perineum which is part of the genital area. And so therefore counts as 1%. And then finally, it says both upper limbs and we know that an arm with hand is 9%. So we have two multiplied by that 9% equals 18% since both upper limbs were burned. So we add together that 18% 1% and 18%. And that gives us 37% as an estimate of the total burnt surface area. With, for our answer choices was Choice B 37%. See you in the next video.