An Indian hospital has successfully performed what it says is Asia's first artificial heart transplant on a 54-year-old man, the head of the institution said Thursday.

Surgeons at Bangalore's Narayana Hrudayalaya implanted a ventricular assist device, or VAD, in the patient in a four-hour operation on March 20 under the guidance of a team of US experts, hospital chairman doctor Devi Shetty said.

The device, measuring 60 millimetres (2.4 inches) in diameter and weighing 298 grams (10 ounces), is implanted in the lower part of the chest below the heart. It is connected to an external battery by a cable and has to be recharged every four hours.

"The VAD is a simple centrifugal pump that sucks the blood from the heart and pumps it into the aorta," Shetty said. "It can pump 10 litres of blood every minute, compared to the normal four or five litres, so it's quite powerful."

The aorta circulates oxygenated blood throughout the body.

Surgeons in the US and Europe have implanted such "new-generation" artificial hearts in 220 patients in the past eight years, but the Bangalore operation was the first of its kind in Asia, Shetty said.

The patient, identified as Venkatakrishniah, suffered a heart attack in 2003 and had been forced to leave his job at a state-owned company because he was unable to work even after bypass surgery.

"After the bypass surgery, my condition worsened and I was unable to walk six steps," Venkatakrishniah was quoted as saying by the Times of India newspaper.