Wilms tumour (WT) is the second most common abdominal tumour in children. It has an excellent prognosis with a 5-year survival close to 90%. Nevertheless, the story is not finished, as we have to understand why 10% of children continue to have a poor prognosis.
Pediatric rapid response systems were first described right at RCH Melbourne in a paper published in 2005. The medical emergency team and the activation criteria described in that paper helped launch worldwide efforts to implement rapid response systems to reduce cardiac arrest and mortality, and inspired researchers to pursue efforts to refine and further improve systems to detect deteriorating patients. Now, 11 years after the original description, significant improvements in arrests and mortality have been described worldwide, yet children still experience preventable deterioration outside the ICU at many hospitals.
