If you have an elderly family member who occasionally has a sudden convulsion in the middle of the night and has a slight fever, then we can clearly tell you that this is a symptom of epilepsy in the elderly. We will reveal the causes of epilepsy in the elderly. The first one is geriatric epilepsy, which refers to epilepsy that first occurs in old age, and the other is senior epilepsy, which refers to epilepsy that has symptoms or signs before entering old age, only to have seizures when entering old age. Most of the causes of geriatric epilepsy are caused by other brain disorders, with cerebrovascular disease at the top of the list, followed by metabolic toxicity, brain tumors, post-traumatic brain injury and craniosurgery, dementia, and central nervous system inflammation, but a small percentage of geriatric epilepsy patients have unknown causes. Etiology of epilepsy onset in the elderly 1. Cerebrovascular disease. Both acute and chronic cerebrovascular disease can be associated with epilepsy. Approximately 5% of strokes begin with epilepsy around one year after the onset of the disease. According to statistics, cerebrovascular diseases, including cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, hypertensive encephalopathy and vasculitis, may cause seizures accounting for 40% to 60% of seizures in the elderly. Cerebral infarction takes the first place. 2. Brain tumors. Among the seizures that start after the age of 55, besides trauma, supratentorial cerebellar tumors are one of the most common causes, especially slow-growing tumors, such as glioma, astrocytoma, meningioma, etc. In addition, tumors in other areas, forming metastatic brain tumors are also the cause of seizures in the elderly, and their prevalence is higher than that of young people. Sometimes seizure is the first symptom of tumor, which should be paid attention to. 3. Brain degenerative diseases. Brain degenerative diseases such as Pick’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease are the causes of pre-mortem dementia, and their pathological changes are brain atrophy, which can be accompanied by seizures. 4. Brain infection. In the acute phase of various encephalitis, meningitis and brain abscesses, the stimulation of congestion, edema, toxins and exudation can cause seizures. After healing, scars and adhesions can be the cause of epilepsy. 5. Metabolic disorders. In middle-aged and elderly people, hypoglycemia produced by pancreatic islet cell tumors is sometimes chronically manifested by epilepsy. Severe electrolyte disorders and water intoxication can induce seizures. 6. Metabolic toxicity. Acute toxic encephalopathy of lead often has epileptic seizures, and epilepsy may persist for a long time after healing. In addition, alcohol poisoning, hypoglycemia, nonketotic hyperglycemia, aminophylline, and isoniazid poisoning can also cause seizures.