[Medico-legal assessment of the ability to undergo imprisonment: a retrospective analysis of larger numbers of cases from Hamburg]. / Die gerichtsärztliche Uberprüfung der Haftfähigkeit: eine retrospektive Analyse grösserer Fallzahlen aus Hamburg.

The medico-legal assessment and preparation of expert opinions on the ability to undergo imprisonment is an important part of the administration of justice. However, statistical data or reports on such examinations are rare. The article therefore presents an analysis of data from the Medico-Legal Service ("Gerichtsärztlicher Dienst") of the City of Hamburg covering the period from 1975 to 2011. Based on a previous study from the early 1970s, the development of such assessment activities and their results were analysed in detail with the help of relevant statistical data. Conclusions can be drawn as to the need for general medical knowledge of experts giving opinions in the field of clinical forensic medicine.

[A special facet of testing the ability to stand trial: home visits by forensic physicians]. / Eine besondere Facette der Prüfung auf Verhandlungsfähigkeit: gerichtsärztliche Hausbesuche.

Home visits by physicians are generally regarded as a characteristic task of general practitioners. However, this form of external medical practice is also performed in the field of forensic assessments. The article presents the data material of the "Gerichtsärztlicher Dienst" (Medico-Legal Service) of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg collected from 1975 to 2012 and analyses the numerical development and contents of external medico-legal examinations. Statistical records and evaluations of medico-legal examinations are a rarity in Germany. The study presented here is the first investigating external examinations of subjects. It focuses mainly on home visits related to criminal proceedings where it is not clear whether the person concerned is able to stand trial. This special type of medico-legal assessment is an essential part of the administration of justice today. As the article shows, there are parallels with the work of the general practitioner not only with regard to the general aspects of home visits, but also concerning their content. A general medical knowledge is indispensible for experts working in the field of clinical forensic medicine.

[Intramuscular bleeding in deaths from an internal cause: forensically significant differential diagnosis between external trauma and hemorrhages occurring during agony]. / Intramuskuläre Blutungen beim Tod aus innerer Ursache. Forensisch bedeutsame Differentialdiagnostik zwischen ausserer Gewalteinwirkung und agonal entstandenen Einblutungen.

Five cases of death from an internal cause are described in which bleeding into the muscles of the neck, the region of the shoulder girdle, the back of the thorax and partly the arms occurred during agony. As the cause of death was unclear at first and a violent crime could not be ruled out, a forensic autopsy was ordered in the course of which hemorrhages were detected which raised the differential diagnostic question whether extravasation might have been caused by an impact of blunt force. However, thorough investigation of the macroscopic and especially the microscopic structure of the lesions provided clear evidence that all the hemorrhages were due to internal causes. The pattern of these muscular lesions suggests intensified breathing with dyspnea leading to ruptures of the accessory respiratory muscles. Intramuscular bleedings of this type are a well-known phenomenon in legal medicine in connection with death by drowning, but have not been described in the medicolegal literature in cases of natural death from an internal cause so far.