[Expert judgement of patients with gastro-intestinal disease (author's transl)]

At present there are two special situations which offer considerable difficulties in expert judging of gastro-intestinal disease: (1) patients with gastro-intestinal disease acquired during the war or in the immediate post-war period, and (2) quantification of functional disorders. Gastro-intestinal disorders do have considerable importance in social medicine. Physical unfitness for special professional work was caused in 3.5-4% of all male cases by gastro-intestinal disease during the last decade, physical unfitness for work in general in 2.2-2.6% of all male cases, the corresponding figures for female persons being 1.6-2.0% and 2.2-1.5%. General rules for establishing an expert opinion cannot be given; some points however are made in regard to how a diagnosis can be established and how unfitness caused by gastro-intestinal disease may be ascertained or excluded.