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What is the "rule of nines"?
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Burns are also classified by the area of affected skin. Several methods have been developed to estimate the extent of burns as percentage of total body surface area. A simple method, developed for human patients, is Wallace's “rule of nines,” which divides the body into regions that are multiples of 9% of total body surface area. This method has been adapted for use in veterinary patients. In animals, the head and neck are counted as one “nine” or 9%. Each forelimb is also 9%, each hindlimb two “nines” or 18%, and the dorsal and ventral halves of the trunk also 18% each.27 In human medicine, it is widely recognized that the rule of nines has limitations: body shape (adult versus infant) and body condition (normal versus obese) have major effects on the accuracy of the system. Given the equal or even greater variability of shapes and surface areas in the animal world, it is quite possible that the rule of nines may be subject to similar or perhaps even greater errors of estimation in veterinary applications.
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