![]() This underestimation is across all age groups. Our data indicate that the Broselow tape underestimates the weight of children. This has recently come into question in the face of a growing obesity problem. Pediatric Advanced Life Support 15 and Advanced Trauma Life Support 16 provide national standardized recommendations for resuscitation and recommend the Broselow tape be used to estimate a child’s weight. Care must be taken to provide a therapeutic drug dose, without overdosing or underdosing, placing the patient at risk of toxicity or ineffectiveness, respectively. The resuscitation of children requires an accurate and rapid measure of the child’s weight to provide doses of various drugs and fluid boluses. This was performed 3 separate times with a tape graduated in 1-mm increments. Patient’s actual weights were compared with the predicted weights from the Broselow pediatric emergency tape.Įach color zone of the Broselow tape, version 2007B, was measured with a measuring tape on a hard surface 6 ( Table 1). Actual heights were plotted on the Broselow tape to determine the estimated weight and corresponding color zone. Of these, 657 patients had heights within the parameters of the Broselow tape (<146.5 cm). Seven hundred forty-one patients had heights exceeded the tape and were excluded. Patients excluded were those with incomplete data (n = 1455), of which 1398 patients had the height (in centimeters) and weight (in kilograms) recorded. A review of the trauma registry of a university, rural level I trauma center was undertaken.Īll pediatric trauma patients from 2002 to 2006 were evaluated. The study protocol was approved by the West Virginia University institutional review board with a waiver of consent. ![]() The goal of this study was to determine the degree of inaccuracy of the Broselow tape at estimating weight in a pediatric population at a rural level I trauma center. ![]() 9– 12 Nieman et al 9 found that the Broselow tape was accurate in predicting the correct weight only 55% to 60% of the time and is more likely to underestimate the correct dose of the drug to be given. ![]() Recently, the accuracy of the Broselow tape has come into question, largely secondary to the growing problem of obesity in the pediatric population. This prevalence has nearly tripled for adolescents in the past 2 decades. 7 In the United States, 12.5 million children are overweight in the United States-more than 17%. This is a particular problem in West Virginia, where 36.9% of the population is overweight, and 31.9% is obese. Nationwide, 36.6% of the general population is overweight, with a body mass index 25 to 30 kg/m 2, and 26.6% is obese, with a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m 2. 3, 5 The Broselow 6 tape is one of the most widely used methods of length-based resuscitation tape (LBT) recommended by Pediatric Advanced Life Support and the Advanced Trauma Life Support to reduce medication errors during simulated pediatric emergencies. ![]() 3, 4 There have been conflicting results as to a parent’s ability to estimate the weight of his/her child. 1, 2 Research has also shown weight estimations by physicians and nurses to be unreliable. In the trauma setting, weighing patients on a scale is not feasible, and weight estimations are done under stressful conditions, resulting in an increased likelihood of dosing errors. Dosing of drugs in the pediatric population is based largely on the weight of the patient. ![]()
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