Multimodal approach in the surgical treatment of refractory epilepsy associated with tuberous sclerosis complex: a series of three cases.

We describe the surgical treatment of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)-related refractory epilepsy in three patients. All three had multiple daily seizures, and each had more than three cortical tubers. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging, ictal and interictal scalp electroencephalogram (EEG), positron emission tomography, magnetoencephalography as well as acute and intracranial video-EEG were used to identify the epileptogenic tubers. After localization, five cortical tubers (two in the right temporal lobe in patient 1; one each in the left frontal and temporal lobes in patient 2; and one in the right frontal lobe in patient 3) were resected. At minimum follow-up of 13 months (range, 13-35 months), patient 3 had seizure remission; patient 2 had only rare seizures; while patient 1 had 60% reduction in seizure frequency. Successful epilepsy surgery is possible in patients of TSC with multiple tubers using the multimodal approach.