This calculator applies the Parkland (Baxter) formula to estimate the intravenous fluid a burn patient needs in the first 24 hours, and splits it into the two timed windows the protocol specifies. It is a reference and teaching tool for credentialed burn and trauma clinicians — a starting estimate that is titrated to the patient, not a substitute for a burn-center protocol or clinical judgment.
How the Parkland formula works
The Parkland formula estimates 24-hour crystalloid needs as 4 mL × body weight in kilograms × percent total body surface area (%TBSA) burned. The fluid is lactated Ringer's, an isotonic crystalloid. Because the formula is defined per kilogram, weight entered in pounds is converted to kilograms first (pounds ÷ 2.2046).
The total is then divided in two: half is given in the first 8 hours and half over the next 16 hours. At a baseline start (no time elapsed), the first-window rate is the first half divided by 8 hours, and the second-window rate is the second half divided by 16 hours. Only second-degree (partial-thickness) and deeper burns are counted toward %TBSA; superficial (first-degree) redness is excluded.
Why the 8-hour clock starts at the burn
The single most error-prone part of Parkland resuscitation is timing. The first half of the fluid is due by 8 hours after the injury, not 8 hours after you run the numbers. When a patient reaches definitive care partway through that window, the same first-half volume must be delivered over the hours that remain — so the infusion rate goes up, sometimes sharply.
The 8hr / 16hr Split tab makes this explicit: enter the time since the burn and the calculator recomputes the first-window rate as the first half divided by the remaining hours. Once 8 hours have passed the first window is closed; the tool flags this and directs you to manage against urine output and clinical status rather than attempting to 'catch up' with a large bolus, which can worsen edema.
Estimating burn size and titrating the result
The formula is only as good as the burn-size estimate. The Rule of Nines Helper tab lets you total the burned adult regions (head 9%, each arm 9%, front of trunk 18%, back of trunk 18%, each leg 18%, perineum 1%). For smaller or patchy burns, the patient's palm including fingers is roughly 1% TBSA. Children have proportionally larger heads and smaller legs, so a Lund-Browder chart is more accurate in pediatrics, and pediatric resuscitation also adds maintenance fluid and sometimes uses a lower mL/kg factor.
Crucially, the Parkland number is a starting estimate. Actual resuscitation is titrated to a urine output of about 0.5 mL/kg/hr in adults (near 1 mL/kg/hr in children) and to the patient's hemodynamics. Modern burn practice, including the American Burn Association, cautions against 'fluid creep' from over-resuscitation and increasingly starts nearer 2 mL/kg/%TBSA for adults, titrating upward as needed. This tool computes the classic 4 mL Parkland estimate; use it within your institution's burn protocol, not in place of it.