Heart transplant milestone

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The southern hemisphere's first total artificial heart transplant operation has been performed in a Sydney hospital.

The recipient, 50-year-old Fairfield man Angelo Tigano, recently had his failing heart removed in a five-hour operation and it was replaced with a mechanical device.

It is ensuring the safe flow of up to 9.5 litres of blood per minute throughout his body, as a temporary measure until a suitable donor heart becomes available.

``At any one time there can be around 30 people waiting for a heart transplant at our hospital,'' surgeon Dr Phillip Spratt, head of the heart transplant unit at St Vincent's Hospital, said in a statement on Monday.

``We selected Angelo to receive the Total Artificial Heart as a bridge-to-transplant because without it, he may have had less than two weeks to live.''

Mr Tigano has lived with a degenerative heart condition for more than a decade and, before the operation, he was unable to eat without assistance.

The patient was ``responding very well``, Dr Spratt said, and should resume a ``relatively normal life until a donor heart is available''.

A press event will be held at the hospital, where Mr Tigano is expected to speak to reporters, later on Monday.

- AAP