Barriers to care for musculoskeletal sarcoma patients: a public health perspective.

Introduction: This study seeks to investigate the barriers to care that exist for patients presenting with sarcomas of musculoskeletal origin. Understanding the roots of delays in care for patients with musculoskeletal sarcoma is particularly important given the necessity of prompt treatment for oncologic diagnoses. Investigators reviewed relevant studies of publications reporting barriers to care in patients undergoing diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal tumors.

Management strategies following slightly out-of-range INRs: watchful waiting vs dose changes.

Patients' international normalized ratios (INRs) often fall slightly out of range. In these cases, the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) guidelines suggest maintaining the current warfarin dose and retesting the INR within the following 2 weeks (watchful waiting). We sought to determine whether watchful waiting or dose changes for slightly out-of-range INRs is more effective in obtaining in-range INRs at follow-up.