IN a groundbreaking medical first, doctors at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital successfully performed the first-ever vocal implant surgery in the country, restoring the voice of a 60-year old man with vocal cord paralysis.
The surgery was performed on April 28 by Dr. Milabelle Lingan and her team from UST Hospital’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
It involved implanting a medical-grade silicone and titanium device called Vocal Implant System or VOIS, developed by APrevent.
The device helps restore speech in patients suffering from unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP), a condition where one or both vocal cords fail to move properly.
“If one of your vocal folds is not moving, it can be corrected with a voice implant. The purpose of the implant is to move the immobile vocal fold toward the middle so that it can meet the other moving vocal fold. This way, your voice improves—it won’t sound breathy or leak too much air,” said Dr. Lingan in an interview with The Varsitarian.
The voice implant helps in two main ways: it makes the patient’s voice clearer and stops food or saliva from going into the lungs, which lowers the risk of pneumonia and other infections.
Dr. Lingan collaborated with Dr. Guan-Min Ho, co-founder and CEO of APrevent, who is also affiliated with Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taiwan.
Following the operation, Ho expressed optimism about the technique during a discussion at UST Hospital.
“This technique not only improves outcomes but also saves time, reduces complication rates, and makes the procedure more efficient overall,” he said in the same interview with The Varsitarian.
He also shared his hope that the technique would eventually be adopted across the Philippines to help more Filipino patients.
The procedure was carried out by a team led by Dr. Lingan and Dr. Ho, with Dr. Kevin Mallari as first assistant and Dr. Janice Mangahas from Jose B. Lingad Hospital. Anesthesiologists Dr. Caroline Santos and Dr. Mefellyn Therese Cua oversaw the surgery, while Dr. Rodel Velasquez and Dr. Hans Gabaldon provided additional support.
