Cerebrovascular Disease; A Leading Cause of Epilepsy

Abstract

Various types of cerebrovascular diseases can result in epilepsy in any age, especially in the elderly. Besides well-known cause of epilepsy as large cerebral infarction involving cerebral cortex and intracerebral hemorrhage, there are growing evidences of roles of subcortical infarction, chronic subdural hematoma, and superficial siderosis of the central nervous system in the pathogenesis of epilepsy. We review here the epidemiology and possible predictors of epilepsy in each type of cerebrovascular lesions and summarize the characteristics of semiology and electroencephalography findings in order to take early treatment strategy. Additionally, relevance of acute-symptomatic seizures and status epilepticus to epilepsy is discussed.