[1][2][3] The milliliter amount of fluid required for the first 24 hours – usually Lactated Ringer's – is four times the product of the body weight and the burn percentage (i.e. body surface area affected by burns).
Only area covered by second-degree burns or greater is taken into consideration, as first-degree burns do not cause hemodynamically significant fluid shift to warrant fluid replacement.
[5] The Parkland formula is mathematically expressed as:[4] where mass (m) is in kilograms (kg), burned area (A) as a fraction of total body surface area, and volume (V) is in milliliters (mL).
For example, a person weighing 75 kg with burns to 20% of his or her body surface area would require 4 x 75 x 20 = 6,000 mL of fluid replacement within 24 hours.
[6] The burn percentage in adults can be estimated by applying the Wallace rule of nines (see total body surface area): 9% for each arm, 18% for each leg, 18% for the front of the torso, 18% for the back of the torso, and 9% for the head and 1% for the perineum.