Vietnam has successfully performed its first human heart transplant, after many trials using pigs since August 2005, according to the Vietnam Military Medical University.

The operation was performed last Thursday on 48-year-old Bui Van Nam, a patient from the northern province of Nam Dinh with severe heart failure, the Ministry of National Defense’s university said.

Nam is now recovering from the two-hour operation with the help of doctors and experts from central hospitals and the Taiwanese-owned Cheng Hsin Hospital, it said.

The Hanoi-based university was also the first health clinic to perform kidney and liver transplants in Vietnam in 1992 and 2004 respectively.

The world's first human heart transplant was performed in 1967.