General medicine

Body Surface Area (Mosteller / DuBois)

Educational content onlySource-checked

Cross-checked against published sources on October 8, 2026 (automated, AI-assisted); not reviewed by a licensed clinician. Not medical advice, not for diagnosis or treatment decisions. Always verify with current guidelines and consult a qualified professional. We may be wrong: this page can contain errors. If you spot one, report it and we will check it against current sources and correct it.

Sources checked (3)

Springer Nature (Scientific Reports), open access via Europe PMC. Body surface area formulae: an alarming ambiguity (accessed October 8, 2026)
Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research, open access via Europe PMC. Evaluation of five formulae for estimating body surface area of Nigerian children (accessed October 8, 2026)
N Engl J Med (Massachusetts Medical Society) record in Europe PMC. Simplified calculation of body-surface area (Mosteller 1987), bibliographic record (accessed October 8, 2026)

Source policy Medical disclaimer

Formula

Mosteller: sqrt(height_cm x weight_kg / 3600). DuBois: 0.007184 x W^0.425 x H^0.725 (W in kg, H in cm).

Limitations

Estimates only; no single body surface area formula is validated for every body habitus, for neonates or for extreme obesity.
Chemotherapy dose-capping policies are institution-specific and are not applied here.

References

Simplified calculation of body-surface area. Mosteller RD. N Engl J Med. 1987;317(17):1098. PMID 3657876
A formula to estimate the approximate surface area if height and weight be known (Clinical calorimetry series). DuBois D, DuBois EF. Arch Intern Med. 1916;17(6):863-871.