First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong province has become the world's first to successfully perform a heart transplant during which the heart kept beating, with blood flowing, from the moment it was donated to the conclusion of the surgery. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The innovation marks a technological transformation from cold heart transplantation to warm mode and will facilitate the development of other heart surgeries, he said.

He's team performed ischemia-free liver and kidney transplants in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

The new application of the technology proves that ischemia-free organ transplantation has matured, said Huang Jiefu, chairman of the China National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee in a video message.

Stefan G. Tullius, chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, said: "I consider this success to be a milestone in organ transplantation. The approach will improve organ quality. It has the potential to increase organ availability and it will certainly allow us to understand, on a scientific basis, how ischemia/reperfusion injury is impacting immune responses after transplantation."