Organ transplantation is a medical procedure where an organ from one person (the donor) is surgically implanted into another person (the recipient) to replace a damaged or failing organ. It's a critical option for treating end-stage organ failure and can significantly improve or save the recipient's life.
Drs. Enrique Esquivel (urologist) and Manuel Tayao (cardiovascular surgeon) led the team that did the first kidney transplantation in the country on December 26, 1968, at the UP-Philippine General Hospital, however, the patient died after a week due to uremic pneumonitis. This was followed by a successful attempt almost a year after on November 9, 1969, by doctors from the University of Santo Tomas Hospital (USTH) together with pioneer transplant surgeon Dr. Enrique Ona who assisted them. It was only in 1974 that the first successful kidney transplant at UP-PGH took place. Dr. Ona, returning home a few years back from a surgical fellowship in the USA, collaborated with other specialists from the ABM Sison Hospital (now The Medical City) and the Polymedic General Hospital (now Victor Potenciano Medical Center). Though this was followed by sporadic cases of kidney transplants done at UP-PGH, eventually National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) took the lead in transplants.
In 1993, due to the increasing demand for renal replacement therapies and the growing expertise in the country, the UP-PGH Kidney Transplant Program was revived. The first “revival” kidney transplant was performed by Drs. Ona and Genaro Yusi (urologist), marking the creation of the Division of Organ Transplantation, the youngest in the Department of Surgery.
Over the next 15 years, the division grew modestly, as foreign-trained specialists came in and left, establishing transplant programs in other hospitals here and abroad: Dr. Vanessa De Villa (now at The Medical City) joined in 1995, Drs. Dennis Serrano and Angel Joaquin Amante (now at St. Luke’s Medical Center, and Capitol Medical Center, respectively) in 1996, and Dr. Carlo Gerardo Ramirez in 1998. In 1998, Dr. Ona was appointed Executive Director of the NKTI and relinquished his position as Chief of the division to Dr. Ramirez (now in Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Philadelphia, USA). Dr. Ramirez served as Division Chief until 2004 before passing the baton of leadership to Dr. De Villa. She was eventually succeeded by Dr. Serrano in 2005.
To date, more than 250 kidney transplants have been performed at the UP-PGH, the majority comprising grafts from living donors. More recently, with the addition of Drs. Siegfredo Paloyo (who trained at the Miami Transplant Institute and current chief) and Junico Visaya, the division had pushed the envelope and shaped the current transplant landscape by performing the country’s first isolated intestinal transplant (2013) and UP-PGH’s first successful adult deceased donor liver transplant (2014).
December 26, 1968 – first kidney transplantation in the Philippines performed by Drs. Enrique Esquivel and Manuel Tayao. Although the patient eventually died, this paved the way for renal transplantation in the country.
1993 – Establishment of the Division of Organ Transplantation under the Department of Surgery
December 6, 2013 – first deceased donor intestinal transplantation in the Philippines performed by Drs. Siegfredo Paloyo and Junico Visaya with Dr. Marc Paul Lopez (GS2/Colorectal) in a 44-year-old female with short bowel syndrome. She previously underwent significant resection of gangrenous intestines due to intussusception. The patient lived for 4 years until she succumbed to graft-versus-host disease.
June 7, 2014 – The first successful adult deceased donor liver transplantation of UP-PGH in a 52-year-old male with chronic hepatitis B infection. Dr. Siegfredo Paloyo and Dr. Junico Visaya performed the surgery with Dr. Dante Ang and Dr. Ramon De Vera (GS3/Hepatobiliary). The patient is currently alive and well with a stable functioning graft.
April 13, 2018 – The first renal autotransplantation in the Philippines was performed by Dr. Siegfredo Paloyo together with the Surgical Oncology Service (GS 1) on a 40-year-old male with retroperitoneal liposarcoma.
December 4, 2024 - The first robot-assisted kidney transplantation in a government tertiary hospital was done in PGH. In partnership with the Division of Urology, the team performed its first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.
Enrique T. Ona, MD – pioneering surgeon trained at Lahey Clinic in Boston who illuminated the pathway for organ transplantation in the country. After graduating from the UP College of Medicine in 1962, he went for an internship at Buffalo General Hospital and surgical residency at Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. He subsequently had a research fellowship at St. Claire Hospital in New York after his stint at Lahey Clinic under the great academic surgeon John L. Madden, MD. Upon returning to the Philippines, he was invited by Dr. Enrique M. Garcia (Department Chair) to be a consultant staff. Additionally, he was a visiting fellow at Cambridge University (Addenbrooke’s Hospital) in 1973 under Sir Roy Calne MD (pioneering British transplant surgeon who incidentally gave a lecture at the Estrada Hall on the use of cyclosporine in liver and pancreas transplant, November 17, 1980). Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards and accolades raising the bar on the management of renal diseases and transplantation in the country. Dubbed as the father of transplantation in the Philippines, he served as the executive director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute and eventually becoming the Secretary of Health in 2010 under then President Benigno Aquino III. During his term, he was recognized as a Harvard Health Leader for his leadership and commitment to strengthening the various projects implemented by the Department of Health. His avant-garde leadership was also felt in numerous surgical societies such as the Philippine Society for Transplant Surgeons, Transplantation Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Board of Surgery and the Philippine College of Surgeons.
Angel Joaquin M. Amante, MD – the quintessential surgeon trained at the University of Texas in Houston under Barry D. Kahan, MD, PhD (known to have performed the second kidney transplant of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos in November 1984). A urologist/transplant surgeon who helmed the Philippine Society for Transplant Surgeons after Dr. Ona’s term. He steered the society to new heights, making it more relevant and a resounding voice in the local transplant field. He previously served as the head of the Center for Organ Transplantation at St. Luke’s Medical Center – Global City and has since settled into private practice.
Carlo Gerardo B. Ramirez, MD – abdominal transplant surgeon trained at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania under the tutelage of no less than the father of transplantation, Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD. He simultaneously headed the division and the Department of Organ Transplantation at NKTI during his brief stay before moving to Thomas Jefferson University(TJU) in Philadelphia, becoming the director of its transplant fellowship program for 17 years. He is a Surgery Professor at Sidney Kimmel Medical College/TJU.
Vanessa H. De Villa, MD, PhD – liver transplant surgeon trained at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Kaohsiung, Taiwan under Chao-Long Chen, MD, PhD (Taiwan’s father of liver transplantation) and Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong under Sheung Tat Fan, MD, PhD. She presently heads the Center for Liver Health and Transplantation at The Medical City. The Medical City’s Liver Transplant program is the country’s most active program in living donor liver transplantation. She also served as past Chair of the Philippine Board of Transplant Surgery for eight years.
Dennis P. Serrano, MD, MHA – surgeon-leader trained at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio under the consummate urologic surgeon Andrew C. Novick, MD. Another urologist/transplant surgeon who has held key positions in surgical societies such as the Philippine Society for Transplant Surgeons and Philippine Urological Association. A surgeon exemplar in robotic surgery who now serves as the Chief Executive Officer of St. Luke’s Medical Center.