A Chinese hospital that performed the country's first face transplant has conducted a liver transplant without removing the original, which the hospital claims to be the first such surgery in the world.

Doctors took a 230-gram part of the liver from a woman and transplanted it in the up-left part of her girl's abdomen after the malfunctioning spleen was removed, said Xiong Lize, vice president of Xijing Hospital in the northwestern city of Xi'an.

The surgery was done on Saturday morning and the 13-year-old girl named Zhou Mingrong was in stable conditions on Sunday, Xiong said.

Usually, liver transplant removes all the malfunctioning one and replaces it with healthy liver, according to Dou Kefeng who conducted the surgery.

The heterotopic transplant of liver avoids the dangerous "no-liver period" that occurs during normal transplants and hemorrhage when part of liver is cut off, said Dou.

Zhou Mingrong had suffered from a liver disease caused by the lack of enzyme metabolizing copper element. She could not help shaking arms all the time and was even unable to put food into mouth.

However, Dou said the doctors could not predict how the healthy liver will go along with the malfunctioning one in long term.

A 31-year-old man, who was disfigured after an attack by a bear, received a partial face transplant operation at the hospital on April 14 last year, the second such operation in the world following the face transplant of 38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire in France in 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2007)