Types of Stroke
What Causes a Stroke? The Risk Factors You Can Change
What causes a stroke, which risk factors you can actually change, the sudden signs that mean ER consult, and what raises stroke risk here.
I'm Dr. Louie Gayao, a neurosurgeon in Quezon City. I operate on the brain and spine of adults and children, and I train neurosurgery residents. Here I explain the conditions I treat and answer the questions my patients and residents ask the most.
Clinic: Tuesday and Thursday at Lung Center of the Philippines, 2 PM
Wednesday at Philippine Children's Medical Center, 2 PM
Or start browsing the patient guides
Brain and spine surgery for adults and children, with clinics at the Lung Center of the Philippines and the Philippine Children's Medical Center. During consultation, I review your case with you and recommend the treatment options.
Read about your condition before your consultation. Each guide answers the questions patients ask most, in plain words, and describes what other patients and their families have been through, so you come in knowing what to ask.
What causes a stroke, which risk factors you can actually change, the sudden signs that mean ER consult, and what raises stroke risk here.
A meningioma grows from the brain's covering layers. Most are not cancer, many are found by accident, and watching with repeat scans is often the plan.
No one can know all of medicine, and some questions need a specialist's view. I write these for general clinicians. Read, ask me anything that isn't clear, and refer when you're unsure. An early referral is never wasted.
Message me a short clinical summary and the imaging report. I'll reach out to your patient to book a consultation and, once I've seen them, let you know the plan.
Unstable or acutely deteriorating patients: send them to the nearest emergency room.
I trained in neurosurgery at the Philippine General Hospital and now practice in Quezon City, much of it in the Department of Health's specialty hospitals. I've sat with many patients and their families there, and the same worries come up again and again: what the disease is, what surgery will mean, what happens after. Most of what I write starts with those conversations.
I split my week between surgery, rounds, teaching, and building. As training officer, I help shape how the next generation of neurosurgery residents learns the art of neurosurgery. I am also working to build the technical capacity of our specialty hospitals — equipment, specialists, and processes — so that patients have safer surgery and better outcomes.
