Abstract： Objective To investigate clinical and EEG characteristics of viral encephalitis in acute epileptic seizures. Methods Two hundred and twenty-nine patients with acute viral encephalitis had been admitted to our hospital from February 2001 to December 2006. Epileptic seizures of these patients were analyzed. Comparative observations were conducted on the EEG, VEEG, MRI and prognosis between the epileptic seizure and non-seizure patients. Results Among the 229 cases, secondary epilepsy occurred in 85 (37.1% ) cases within the first 14 days of onset, including 48 (56.5 % ) cases of tonic-clonic seizures and 26 cases of status epilepticus. There was a signif-icant difference in levels of EEG and VEEG abnormality between epileptic seizure group and non-seizure group (Ho =22.789, P =0.000,X2 =5.847, P<0.05). The total abnormality rates of cranial MRI were 70.4% and 39.0% respectively. The rates of occurrence of cortex lesion were 53.5 % (38/71) and 22.0% (30/136) respectively with a significant difference. Significant difference was also found between the death rate. Conclusion Tonic-clonic sei-zure is the most common type of epileptic seizure in the acute phase of the viral encephalitis. Significant changes oc-cur in EEG and VEEG. Early ischemic lesion and cortex lesion on MRI can provoke the secondary epilepsy.