ABSTRACT
The commercial sector in India is ever-changing with a visible divide in different aspects of the operations, this leads to the creation of different sectors of the economy namely the 'formal' and the 'informal sector'. There is a wide disparity in documentation and assessment needs of the commercial setups involved in different types of activities in such 'unorganized' or 'informal' units. The Government of NCT of Delhi data on street vendors indicates that Delhi has an estimate of over 4 lakh vendors who are working in the informal sector as street vendors, roadside tea sellers, small roadside nursery owners, etc. all these setups require a special type of planning & consideration as these vendors have limited resource availability, with many of these street vendors finding accommodations in their mobile carts, and unplanned roadside setups. The state of livelihood and resource access remains limited for these 'informal' vendors. Issues such as the access to 'safe' infrastructure, permits & certification to operate as street vendors limit their social and economic well-being. Such concerns require significant social and design interventions to ensure the social, physical, and economic well-being of the vendors on 'the streets'.
ABSTRACT
Background: Cholelithiasis is one of the most common problems encountered in surgery. It is an immense challenge to discriminate between signs and symptoms due to gastrointestinal lesions and gallstones diseases. The objective of this study was to evaluate the usage of pre-operative upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGE) as a routine in treating symptomatic gallstone patients.Methods: This prospective hospital based observational study was conducted in the Department of General Surgery at Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Sri Amritsar from January 2018 to June 2019. 60 symptomatic gallstone patients were selected for cholecystectomy and preoperative upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy evaluation was done for any associated upper gastrointestinal problems.Results: Out of the total patients, females constituted 85% of overall study patients and majority of the patients presented with atypical biliary colic symptoms (55%, group 2) whereas 45% presented with typical biliary colic symptoms (group 1) (p value=0.009). Relief rate was highest in group 1 with abnormal UGE than with group 2.Conclusions: The routine use of upper GI endoscopy in patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis prior to cholecystectomy will help reduce post-operative persistence of symptoms and thus, it is a useful investigation in the overall treatment of gallstone diseases.