EEG During Electroconvulsive Therapy with Succinylcholine

Many electroencephalographic recordings on patients with epilepsy have been published and various types of seizure discharges have been identified; however, the type of discharge that occurs in man during a full-blown mal generalized tonic-clonic convulsion has not (insofar as we have been able to ascertain) been illustrated in any previous publication. The reason is not far to seek. The Atlas of Electroencephalography (Gibbs and Gibbs1) contains many examples of seizure discharges of the grand mal type, but these are all subclinical discharges. When convulsive movements occur, the electroencephalogram either is obliterated by artifacts arising from the mechanical movement or is so mixed with these disturbances that it cannot be reliably interpreted (Fig. 1). Sufficient amounts of curare or curare-like drugs which eliminate muscle and movement artifacts are commonly employed in animal experimentation, but they are not ordinarily justified in clinical experimentation. However, if a drug were employed which