Transport of the critically ill child.

The principles of stabilization before, and monitoring during, transportation are well established in adult intensive care practice but less so in paediatrics. The speed with which critically ill children deteriorate and the aggressiveness of treatment needed are often underestimated. A dedicated, fully funded and staffed transport service for each paediatric referral centre in the UK is urgently required.

Selectively withholding treatment from newborn babies.

Whether to withhold life-prolonging treatment from a severely handicapped newborn baby is a topical moral dilemma. Some recent prominent court cases in the UK highlight the ethical issues that have to be faced when considering such a decision.

Prospective evaluation of the Paediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score.

The performance of the admission day Paediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score for outcome prediction was assessed prospectively in 270 consecutive admissions, aged 3 days to 18.6 years, to a paediatric intensive care unit. Using a cut off of r = 0.