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Conflicts of interest: The authors have indicated they have no conflict of interest relevant to this article to disclose.
Introduction
Appropriate and accurate drug dosages, equipment sizes, and fluid rates are essential for treatment of pediatric patients.1,2Most pediatric drug doses are per kilogram bodyweight.3During resuscitation, when a weight is unknown and a scale is unavailable, accurate weight estimation is crucial for appropriate drug administration.4Weight estimation by medical personnel is of variable accuracy.4-7Parents frequently are able to provide a reliable weight,4but they may not be available during emergent situations. Resuscitation aids and formulas may assist in estimating pediatric patients' weights.8,9Some of these aids have been validated5clinically and provide more accurate weight estimations than formula computations and subjective estimations.5,8,9Current American Heart Association (AHA; Dallas, Texas USA) guidelines support using resuscitation aids that combine length-based weight estimation with pre-calculated drug dosing to decrease medication/dosing errors.6
The Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape (Armstrong Medical Industries; Lincolnshire, Illinois USA) is used commonly in resuscitations in the prehospital care of pediatric patients as it has been found to be superior to other estimation devices and formulas.6-8It facilitates rapid weight estimations and provides corresponding drug dosages based on the length of a child.5,8,10The Broselow tape was developed using height/weight correlations from a nationally representative sample of children in the United States.5,10The color zone categories predict the 50thpercentile weight for height,5estimating ideal body weight of US children.3Based on predicted weight and AHA recommendations, pre-calculated doses for common resuscitation drugs are listed in each color zone.5The Broselow tape can estimate weight within 10% of actual weight in 55%-65% of children,6,9making it an accurate tool for estimating pediatric weights, particularly in younger children approximately 25 kg or less.5,8However, it considerably underestimates weight in obese children.3,6,8For children longer than the tape and older than 12 years of age, adult dosages and equipment are recommended.6However, children in this category are...