FRACTURES OF HIP WITH MANUALLY CONTROLLED BRIEF STIMULUS ECT : Report of Two Cases

Two cases of fracture of the neck of the femur are reported in healthy schizophrenics under 30 while using a technique of electrotherapy with a manually controlled square wave brief stimulus current, raised at intervals during the convulsion. These cases occurred in a group of 35 patients, representing an incidence of 5.7% or 0.3% of treatments, which is in marked contrast to 2 such fractures in the same hospital during the many years of standard ECT. It is suspected that the alterations in current level superimpose muscular contractions on the convulsive movements, which in certain phases of the convulsion might be particularly hazardous to the hip joint.